State v. Crawford

521 A.2d 1193 (1987)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

These facts are not in Weaver 3^rd. Officer Wiggs testified that in the early morning hours of April 3, 1983, he saw D standing beside a halted automobile and pointing a handgun into the driver's side of the vehicle. Wiggs identified himself as a police officer and asked D to drop his weapon. D spun around took several steps toward Wiggs. He then crouched into a combat position using both hands with the weapon and pointed it at Wiggs. Wiggs fired at D and then lost sight of him. Moments later, D was spotted lying on the ground still grasping the gun. D 'attempted to fire again,' at which time Wiggs and another uniformed police officer shot at D. Wiggs implored D to discard his weapon and D finally threw it away. When the police later recovered Ds gun, they discovered that its trigger was missing. D explained his evening prior to the event. D was going to stay home and allowed his friends to use his car to go to the nightclub. D then returned to his apartment and relaxed on his bed. A few minutes later, he heard a knock on his door, and he went to answer it. Through the closed door, his friends informed him that his car had a flat tire. As he got ready to open the door, he heard movement behind in his apartment. He turned around in time to see in the movement at which point a gun was fired at him several times. D asked for help and moved into the shower. D crossed the living room to the bar and picked up the phone to call the police. It had been cut off for nonpayment of the bill. D began to beat on the floor and turn the volume up on my stereo to attract attention on the neighbors. He heard movement again he crawled to the bedroom because it had a lock on it. He pushed the door to the bedroom open, began to stand up and there were several flashes. At that point, another individual standing in front of him raised a handgun in his direction. D hit him as hard as I could with that stick, closed the hand he was holding the gun in. At that point, the other person tried to grab D. The person that I hit with the stick at first attempted to fire the gun at me several times. D reached out to grab the gun. D fell out through the glass and out of the window down to the front below and landed in the dirt. It was very wet and rainy outside that night. D had trouble seeing because there was blood running out his eyes, and his shoulder was hurting terribly. D believed he had been shot. D tried to get up, but kept staggering and falling back down. There were footsteps coming in his direction. D realized the gun was there, and he picked the gun up to defend himself. The ordeal continued, and D was shot two more times and tried to escape. D was shot multiple times again. The police arrived. D's account was supported by other witnesses who testified that shots were fired inside D's apartment, that D was lying on the ground below his broken glass window, and that two unidentified males fled D's apartment at approximately the same time that he fell out of his window. Moreover, the doctor who treated Crawford after the incident testified that D had received numerous gunshot wounds. D requested that the trial judge instruct the jury as to the availability of the defense of necessity to the charge of unlawful possession of a handgun. The trial judge refused. The Court of Special Appeals reversed, finding that the trial court erred in not giving a necessity instruction. The intermediate appellate court held that the D had a right, under the circumstances, to possess the gun. The court granted certiorari.