An August 17 shooting in West Fargo, North Dakota, that resulted in the death of one man has been deemed self-defense by prosecutors.
According to a report at wdayradionow.com, 25-year-old Austin Strom was trying to gain access to Prairie Heights Church when he was confronted by 66-year-old Kent Hodges, who recorded the incident. The cellphone video ended when Strom attacked Hodges, according to authorities.
West Fargo teacher Donald Barron was parked in a nearby parking lot, saw the altercation, drove up to the two men and yelled “What the f**k are you doing?” He then, according to police, ordered Strom to the ground. After another minute or so, Strom began to advance on Barron.
According to a memorandum sent to wdayradionow.com by the Cass County State’s Attorney’s Office: “Eventually, Strom told Barron, ‘I fear no one’ and advanced toward him. Barron replied, ‘Stop. Stay back.’ Strom continued toward Barron and repeated, ‘I fear no one.”
The two men then moved into the view of the dash camera at the front of the car.
“Strom continued advancing on Barron who repeated, ‘Stay back. I’m going to shoot. I’m going to shoot,’” the memorandum stated. “The video showed Strom had his hands raised and he determinedly walked toward Barron. Barron continued moving backward with his outstretched hands holding his handgun. Strom closed the distance to a couple of feet and Barron fired one round into Strom’s chest. Strom collapsed to the ground and died.”
According to investigators, Barron immediately called 911. When officers arrived, he voluntarily gave them access to his dash cam and cellphone.
Law enforcement authorities said Barron had reason to believe Strom was going to harm him when he fired the shot. And prosecutors said Barron, who retreated several feet from his initial position, went beyond what is required by North Dakota concerning retreating from an attacker.
Before Barron came to his rescue, Hodges lost a lower jaw tooth and had several loosened teeth from Strom kicking him in the face. He also had several cuts on his face that required stitches.
In the end, the prosecutor’s memorandum concluded that Barron’s actions met all the requirements to be considered an act of self-defense under the law.
“Loss of life in our community is always tragic and it is natural to wonder if it could have been avoided,” the memorandum concluded. “The legal question for the State’s Attorney’s Office, however, is not whether Strom’s death could have been avoided but can self-defense and defense of others be disproven beyond a reasonable doubt. Barron had no legal duty to retreat, and North Dakota law provides the right to use deadly force to defend oneself and others against the danger of death, serious bodily injury or the commission of a violent felony. Under the facts and circumstances of this case, the State is unable to disprove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Barron was not acting in lawful defense of self and others.”
Toxicology reports later showed that Strom had THC in his system and 25 THC vape cartridges in his vehicle.
THC does not make people aggressive like alcohol. Something else was going on with this guy.
At any rate, Barron let the guy get with the 21 ft circle. Even with his gun drawn and aimed, what if there was a misfire or he had it on safety? Better have a plan in mind and act on it when the aggression starts instead of being backed into a situation of a single pull of the finger.
A thirty year history of gangster rap and gangster culture beg to differ.
People need to stop auto-associating marijuana with middle-class white kids and Phish concerts. The spectrum of users and varieties of product is far greater.
THC related schizophrenia and psychosis episodes have been observed for decades. Rare but happens and with the other stuff that has been mixed in it is seeing a slight uptick. With that said in most cases an aggressive asshole on THC will be just about as likely to be an aggressive asshole off THC in the majority of casesso it shouldn’t be used as the determining factor.
Bill Cosby, in a monologue, was discussing with an acquaintance, that mans drug usage, in particular coke.
What is it about coke?, Cosby said he asked him.
It enhances your personality, the guy said.
What if you’re an asshole?, Cosby asked.
Move away from the ‘usual suspects’ and some white guy having a bad hair day will try to end you.
20 to 1 not going to happen but yes it sometimes does.
Safe. I’ve lived in all white areas. 100% white. We still had crimes to include murder.
Hate to rain on you and leblancs parade but if all you’re watching for is the ‘usual suspects’ you’re letting yourself in for a big let down.
I don’t trust anybody. Especially not the fbi’s info. Those bastards are a part of the problem, not the solution.
But you do you, boo.
Let me know when all white areas have the incident report per capita of mixed cities. State city fed and private data all support there being a huge difference and have for over a century so that would be a lot of coordinated faked data. Observer bias goes both ways.
Back in August the FBI quietly revised the crime numbers to show there was far more crime in 2021 and 2022 than previously reported. so you are far more correct than most people might imagine.
Does it matter what the incident report per capita is if you’re the one getting knifed by a white meth head?
This fixation on race is devisive and makes our side look foolish. It helps folks like the left paint us as rednecks.
And it is distracting. Keep your head on a swivel regardless of the demographics of your area.
Fixation not so much just the reality that even in counties with bail reform, soft on crime policies, all kinds of sentencing reform and other equity agendas a 5% segment of the population will account for 50+ % of violent crime, 80% of interracial violent crime and still be over half of the prison population. You have the luxury of ignoring this I have to process it and investigate it to see if it’s because of racism. I very rarely find any racism in the process and you have no idea how good you had it if you think whatever crime you experienced was relevant in an all white community (typically 1/10th or less especially violent crime)
This is the mindset I’m talking about. It ain’t relevant because it happened in an all white community?
Maybe you need to read your own words and really think about it.
How many murders did you see in a year? More or less than 10? I grew up outside of Philadelphia and we would see 5-15 a month and it got worse the closer to the city you got. You have no concept of high crime rates and what it looks like. I have had 1 white druggie threaten me ever. For blacks over a dozen and for hispanics only 4. Yes crime in white communities are irrelevant because ultimately they are a minority that is only notable in a man bites dog level of being shocked it happens. But keep projecting this problem you seem to have acknowledging basic math to my being something or another.
I made a simple statement. You jumped in with both feet. Maybe I hit a nerve?
Likewise
Proud to be a redneck! No shame at all. Does not btw, mean that I’m a racial bigot.
agree on the swivel comment. however, 13% of the population is responsible for over 50% of the crime.
Hey! It’s Debbie under another name!
There’s a concept called “per capita” that many of the usual suspects have trouble grasping.
Nah jwm and I have disagreed on this topic before and honestly I think it is just a difference of lived experience and idealisms. I respect his opinions and assessments but on this topic I do strongly disagree with him.
SAFEupstateFML,
I have been the victim of no less than four violent attacks in my lifetime and all of them were white guys in “nice” areas.
Crime can and does come from any race. Is it more prevalent in certain races? Perhaps. Is that due to their genes? Nope. It is due to collapse of the family and traditional values in whatever demographic has a higher-than-average violent perpetrator rate.
Didn’t mention genes but we also don’t know if that’s a factor. MOAA may be a factor but good luck getting objective research on that. Ultimately we will all have different lived experiences and often they will seemingly be in direct contradiction to each other in various points. One thing that was mentioned earlier was racism being a tool of division used by various “ists” and yes it is. It is also used to push attacks against noticing patterns of what actually happens.
LOL!
White gun violence: 50 per 100,000
Remove “diversity” from the crime stats and we’re as safe as the Cotswolds.
That being said, I don’t trust anyone, which is why I always carry.
Commenting system screwup: Black gun violence is greater than 50 per 100,000. White gun violence is less than 4 per hundred thousand.
Don’t use less than or greater than symbols in this commenting system.
“Black gun violence is greater than 50 per 100,000. White gun violence is less than 4 per hundred thousand.”
That is statistical racism; hate speech. And even the mathematical calculations behind such stats is racist. Shame, shame.
And, surprise surprise, the perp was a do.p.e smoker. Continued use of THC leads to psychosis. The entire MJ legalization effort is going to end in a tangled mound of lawsuits and an ocean of tears.
And no, I don’t smoke MJ (or drink alcohol, anymore), and encourage people to follow suit. These days it pays to stay sober, as this incident demonstrates in more ways than one.
I’m trying to understand what the purpose of listing the shooter as a ‘teacher’ was. He was a 3rd party citizen who saw a problem developing and moved to stop it. Good for him.
Biden would have said to shoot him in the leg.
So this can be listed as another “school shooting,” duh.
“Loss of life in our community is always tragic”.
Not necessarily true as this incident clearly demonstrates.
An interesting note on Austin’s obituary states:
“Austin Kelly Strom tragically passed away on Saturday, August 17, 2024, at the place where he considered home, Prairie Heights Church in West Fargo, ND. ”
https://www.itenfuneralhome.com/obituary/Austin-Strom
“Better have a plan in mind and act on it ”
I’d say the teacher did exactly that. A+ for him.
In other news, a man shot a dog in FL, and claimed selfdefense, or at least defense of his Chihuahua. The State Attorney in Palm Beach charged him with animal abuse and a couple of firearms charges. He requested an SYG hearing, which is a Florida thing. The SA said that Florida’s selfdefense laws don’t apply to animals, so no SYG immunity hearing, the case goes to jury. The judge said “that’s right”!
But on appeal a 4th District panel of judges said “of course they do.” So the shooter will get his SYG hearing. The results of that should and hopefully will, depend on the facts of the case.
But they ought to call it Palm Bitch County. Truth in advertising, don’t cha know…
I thought the sign said everyone was welcome to come inside?
Another uppity exclusive church I see.
It’s no wonder Kamala wants to ban religion.
Let’s ban Harris! Vote TRUMP!
Prosecutors note that Hodges has dementia and mistakenly arrived at the church a day early to help with the Sunday services.
“I have been the victim of no less than four violent attacks in my lifetime and all of them were white guys in “nice” areas”
Just guessing, white areas is where you spend the most time…
As a proud redneck, I must say kiss my ass. My neck is red because of working out in the sun. Also l’m a proud cracker, my mother’s family were Florida crackers, lived off the land, rounding up Ferrell cattle. I bet your sorry ass never picked watermelons for anywhere from 8 to 16 hours in a day. How about baling hay, cropping tobacco? I was never too damn good to work right next to black kids.
Thinking that whoever determined that self-defense with a firearm is legal will likely be excoriated, and fired. And ND govt will re-open the case as “obvious” murder.
FAFO. Darwin award recipient nomination pending !
Vape cartridges are MUCH more powerful than ordinary weed, people OD on them. Like three or more times and he had 25??? Good thing he was shot before he killed someone in a DUI…
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