...Kennedy, a former car detailer from Elmwood with no criminal record, rejected a plea deal from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office that would have sent him to state prison for 17½ to 34 years. He said he opted to put his fate in the hands of a jury because he believed testifying about what happened that night in the 6600 block of Dorel Street in Elmwood, where he lived, would set him free.
“I knew I was only guilty of wanting to live. That’s all I knew,” Kennedy said during an interview last week in his lawyer’s office. “I just felt like, these guys came — I don’t know what they came to do — but they came with guns. And people were yelling, ‘Shoot him!’ and stuff like that. I’m just glad I got out of there with my life.”...
That should be the end of it, no?
No.
Assistant District Attorney Sheida Ghadiri argued during the trial that the gun Kennedy fired belonged to him, that he knew how to use it given that he shot four of the five men he fought with, and the number of bullets he fired — eight to 10 — was too many to be self-defense.
But a key moment in the trial, Kennedy and Nenner said, came when Ghadiri was cross-examining Kennedy about why he fired repeatedly at the men.
“Ms. Ghadiri, what did you want me to do?” both recalled him saying. “I don’t understand. You want me to die? You want my mom to come see me with a hole in my head in the middle of the street? That’s not reasonable.”The DA’s Office stands by its decision to prosecute Kennedy, said Ben Waxman, the office’s spokesperson.
Actually, the DA didn't give a flying fart if this citizen lived or not. All they cared about was that he used a gun to defend his own life, and that is NOT acceptable in the Hobnail State.
Buy. More. Ammo.
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