Teen's Friend Compares His Shooting Death To Trayvon Martin
SACRAMENTO COUNTY (CBS13) - An 18-year-old male who had been celebrating his birthday Tuesday was shot after an argument in Sacramento County early Wednesday morning and later died at a nearby hospital.
Sacramento County sheriff's deputies say the shooting happened just before 3 a.m. at a home on Karm Way, just off Diablo Drive in the Foothill Farms area. The Sacramento County Coroner's Office identified the man shot as Jacob Green, who turned 18 on Tuesday.
Green's 18th birthday turned from celebration to commemoration.
"He ended up getting shot over nothing," friend Neem Johansen said. "On his birthday. He just turned 18."
A young unarmed black man shot and killed after an argument outside a Foothills Farm home by a person neighbors describe as a white man in his 30s.
"He didn't have any reason to shoot him," a friend named Eric said. "If there was a problem, why didn't he fight him then?"
The shooter is not under arrest, claiming he acted in self-defense. Green's friends compare it to the infamous Trayvon Martin case captivating the country. Martin, an unarmed black teen, was shot on a street in Florida by George Zimmerman after the two reportedly struggled. Zimmerman wasn't initially arrested but has since been charged with murder.
"Basically it's like a Trayvon Martin story to me, if you ask me, because he didn't deserve to be shot," Johansen said. "It was all a stereotype. Dude was scared of who he seen approaching him."
Ramos calls any correlation a reach.
"I think you see very surface-level parallels," he said. "You have an individual who shot another young man that was unarmed. Quite honestly, I think that's where the comparisons end."
Green had gone to the home where he was shot to meet a girl. Investigators say when he got outside an argument started.
Ramos said witnesses described Green as the initial aggressor.
"And that he began to advance aggressively toward the open front door of the home, where the individual with the gun was standing," he said.
California law presumes a shooter inside a home is acting in self-defense if he or she believes they're in imminent danger. It's similar to Florida's so-called Stand Your Ground law.
This shooting has left an unarmed 18-year-old dead.
His friends miss him.
"My brother asked him "Are you hit?' and he said yeah, and he crumbled," Johansen said.
But in the eyes the law, his death may not have been a crime.
Once completed, the investigation will be forwarded to the District Attorney's Office for a decision on whether any criminal charges will be filed, Ramos said.
