Was This Detroit Shooting Racially Charged?

Theodore Paul Wafer, a Detroit homeowner, was charged Friday with the shooting of 19-year-old Renisha McBride, a woman who was found dead on his porch in the early morning on November 2. The charges include second-degree murder and manslaughter, as well as a weapons charge. According to eyewitness testimonies, McBridge had crashed her car before 1 a.m. that day, and had allegedly gone to get help to get it fixed. The next day, McBride's body was found on Wafer's porch in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, with a gunshot wound to her face.

The Wayne County Medical Examiner's office determined McBride had traces of marijuana and alcohol in her system, and that she had been shot straight-on from a distance.

The police have found no evidence that Wafer and McBride had known each other before the shooting. Civil rights activists have called for the investigation to dig deeper to find out if shooting was racially charged (McBride is a black woman, Wafer is a white man).

Over on the Twittersphere, many people are alleging that Wafer shot McBride because he was racist.

A few days after McBride had been shot but no charges where filed, dream hampton (a filmmaker and activist who spells her name without uppercase letters) spoke out on Democracy Now. She demanded that actions be taken, and claimed that the "Dearborn Police Department has been the opposite of transparent." She says she finds it problematic that many media outlets have called Wafer a "homeowner" rather than calling him by his name — considering he's neither a minor nor the victim.

Watch her speak below at 15:20.

Six days after the shooting, dream hampton uploaded the following video to her YouTube channel, demanding justice for Renisha McBridge.

As for Wafer, pleading self-defense is almost certainly out of the question."We do not believe he acted in lawful self defense," Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said at a news conference.

Wafer has been asked to turn himself in and is scheduled to be arraigned today.

Images: Facebook