<a href="https://salinapost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Screen-Shot-2019-11-13-at-2.05.59-PM.png" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><img src="https://salinapost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Screen-Shot-2019-11-13-at-2.05.59-PM-300x253.png" height="253" width="300"></a>Pierce Jackson photo Sedgwick County SEDGWICK COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal shooting that left a Kansas man dead and have made another arrest. At approximately 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 19, officers responded to a shooting call in the 4600 block of east Boston in Wichita, according to office Charley Davidson.&nbsp;Upon arrival, first responders found 33-year-old Jerome Armbeck in an open field with multiple gunshot wounds to his body. A WPD officer began rendering life-saving aid until Sedgwick County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) arrived. Armbeck was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigatigators learned a disturbance occurred between Armbeck, 18-year-old Pierce Jackson, 20-year-old Marcus Lamar and a 17-year-old boy in the 4600 block of east Boston when a suspect fired multiple times from a firearm, striking Armbeck. On Tuesday, the Wichita Police Department arrested Jackson in Dallas, Texas, on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated robbery and an outstanding warrant, stemming from the shooting. He is being held on a $500,000 bond, according <a href="https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/sheriffinmates/SheriffInmateDetail.aspx?nameId=20064075" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">to online jail records.</a> This is the third arrest in this case. Wichita police previously arrested Lamar and the 17-year-old boy. This was not a random incident, and is drug related, according to Davidson. The case has been presented to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office.

Suspect in fatal Kansas drug deal shooting captured in Texas

<a href="https://salinapost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Screen-Shot-2019-11-13-at-2.41.20-PM.png" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><img src="https://salinapost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Screen-Shot-2019-11-13-at-2.41.20-PM-300x218.png" height="218" width="300"></a> Calmes photo KDOC RILEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas felon on new charges after a Tuesday arrest. Just after 1p.m. Tuesday, police&nbsp;filed a report for burglary, aggravated assault and criminal damage to property in the 1400 block of Normandy Place in Manhattan, according to the Riley County Police Department Activity report.A 31-year-old man reported a known male suspect stole copper pipe and gained access to storage units in the area, causing damage. Police arrested Ryan Calmes, 30, of Manhattan in the 700 block of North Juliette on requested charges of aggravated assault, aggravated burglary and criminal damage to property.&nbsp;Calmes has previous convictions that include DUI, flee and or attempt to elude law enforcement, driving while suspended and for drugs, according to the Kansas Dept. of Corrections. In March, the RCPD arrested Calmes on drug allegation. They arrested him in September for alleged shoplifting and drugs. He is being held on a $50,000 bond.

Kansas felon held on $50K bond for alleged assault, burglary

<a href="https://salinapost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Screen-Shot-2019-11-08-at-5.08.16-AM.png" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><img src="https://salinapost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Screen-Shot-2019-11-08-at-5.08.16-AM-300x226.png" height="226" width="300"></a> Garrett photo Sedgwick County SEDGWICK COUNTY — An 18-year-old Kansas man accused in a fatal shooting of a 15-year-old due to a social media dispute will make a first appearance in court Wednesday.&nbsp;Malick Garrett is scheduled to appear before Judge Rodger Woods, according to to the Sedgwick County Attorney. Just after 6p.m. November 6, police responded to report of a shooting in the 1400 Block of North Ohio Street in Wichita, according to Captain Brent Allred. At the scene, police located a 15-year-old later identified as Marion Wheaton who had been shot in his upper body. EMS transported him to a local hospital where he died. On November 7, police reported the arrest of 18-year-old Malick Garrett of Wichita on a requested charge of 2nd degree murder and outstanding warrants in connection with Wheaton's death. Investigators have learned that Wheaton and two teenage friends walked to the area to meet with a 15-year-old boy and other unknown individuals to fight over an ongoing dispute that involved social media, according to Allred. As Wheaton and his friends walked in the area, they were approached by a vehicle.&nbsp;A 15-year-old male and Garrett exited the vehicle.&nbsp;Garrett fired multiple shots from a handgun, striking Wheaton. This was not a random incident, according to Allred. Multiple handguns were recovered during the investigation. It is the 24th criminal homicide in Wichita in 2019.

Kansas man in alleged social media dispute killing to appear in court

RENO COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Reno County woman on child sex allegations. <a href="https://salinapost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Screen-Shot-2019-11-13-at-12.09.57-PM.png" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><img src="https://salinapost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Screen-Shot-2019-11-13-at-12.09.57-PM-285x300.png" height="300" width="285"></a> Leticia Carrillo photo Reno Co. Just after 1:30p.m. Tuesday, deputies arrested Leticia M. Carrillo, 27, Sylvia on requested charges of two counts of Aggravated Indecent Liberties with a Child, according to a media release from the Reno County Sheriff. The victim in this case is a 15-year-old boy. The investigation stemmed from a sexting case that occurred in Reno County. Through the investigation it was determined Carrillo had sexual intercourse with this victim on two separate occasions, both of them occurring in Reno County. Carrillo is being held in the Reno County Correctional Facility on a $50,000 bond, and awaits her court appearance.&nbsp;

Sheriff: Kansas woman accused of sex crime with 15-year-old

<img src="https://newshub.eagleradio.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Screen-Shot-2019-11-12-at-7.15.18-PM.png" height="163" width="272"> Odom photo Jefferson Co. JEFFERSON COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas man for alleged child abuse. Just before noon Sunday, deputies responded to report of a child in cardiac arrest in the 100 Block of South Cedar Street in Perry, according to Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Herrig. First responders located a 3-year-old girl and transported her to Children’s Mercy in Kansas City. Deputies arrested 23-year-old Zachary Odom and booked him into the Jefferson County jail on a requested charge of child abuse. Odom is expected to make his first court appearance Wednesday. He remains jailed without bond. The child is expected to make a full recovery, according to Herrig.

Sheriff: Child hospitalized, Kansas man accused of child abuse

By Dewey TerrillJC PostThe new regional crisis center that is based at 1558 Hayes Drive in Manhattan and serves a 10-county region opened on Nov. 4th. It is a 24 hour, seven-day a week facility that has 23 employees ranging from a director and therapists to mental health technicians. Pawnee Mental Health Services Executive Director Robbin Cole told the members of the Geary County Commission on Tuesday that this is an outpatient facility service where people being treated spend the night. Admission is voluntary for patients, and they’re free to leave if they do not want to remain in the facility. Cole noted that if someone has committed a crime the crisis center is not an appropriate place for them and if they are arrested they will be put in jail. Also, if healthcare is required it is not an appropriate facility for the patient. There are seven patients in the center right now, and that has been a consistent number since the third day after the 11-bed facility&nbsp;opened.&nbsp;One patient was being taken to the center from Geary County Tuesday afternoon. Cole wanted to explain the value of&nbsp;the facility to the governing body. “What I’m finding out is that commissioners generally seem to understand what it’s value is. It’s a facility that can reduce the number of people who are in our hospital’s emergency room in a mental health crisis by providing an alternative to that hospital emergency room” Cole also added that because the center can intervene in people’s lives earlier rather than later it can reduce the number of people who commit a crime during an acute mental illness.

New regional crisis center is open for business

<img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/11/1573653639860.jpeg">Geary County Office Building, site of the Tuesday county commission meeting. By DEWEY TERRILLJC PostThe new regional crisis center that is based at 1558 Hayes Drive in Manhattan and serves a 10-county region opened on Nov. 4th. It is a 24 hour, seven-day a week facility that has 23 employees ranging from a director and therapists to mental health technicians. Pawnee Mental Health Services Executive Director Robbin Cole told the members of the Geary County Commission on Tuesday that this is an outpatient facility service where people being treated spend the night. Admission is voluntary for patients, and they’re free to leave if they do not want to remain in the facility. Cole noted that if someone has committed a crime the crisis center is not an appropriate place for them and if they are arrested they will be put in jail. Also, if healthcare is required it is not an appropriate facility for the patient. There are seven patients in the center right now, and that has been a consistent number since the third day after the 11-bed facility&nbsp;opened.&nbsp;One patient was being taken to the center from Geary County Tuesday afternoon. Cole wanted to explain the value of&nbsp;the facility to the governing body. “What I’m finding out is that commissioners generally seem to understand what it’s value is. It’s a facility that can reduce the number of people who are in our hospital’s emergency room in a mental health crisis by providing an alternative to that hospital emergency room” Cole also added that because the center can intervene in people’s lives earlier rather than later it can reduce the number of people who commit a crime during an acute mental illness.

SALINE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on theft charges after an arrest by the Kansas Highway Patrol.<img src="http://www.jcpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Screen-Shot-2019-11-12-at-12.23.47-PM-212x300.png" width="212" height="300">Watson photo Saline Co. Just after 2:30p.m. Friday, employees with Lowe’s in Salina were making a delivery&nbsp;in the 300 block of West South Street in Salina and left the truck running so they could use the power lift, according to Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester. When the employees came out of the residence, the 17-foot 2016 Isuzu box truck with $400 worth of tools, a $1,000 black LG refrigerator, and a company cellphone still on board was missing. A couple of hours later, a&nbsp;Kansas Highway Patrol trooper spotted the truck headed westbound on Interstate 70 just west of the Hedville exit. The trooper stopped the truck and arrested Carlo Watson, 53, of San Francisco, Calif., on suspicion of felony theft and operating a motor vehicle without a valid driver’s license, Forrester said. All property was returned undamaged.

Police: Man stole truck while employees made home delivery

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The man accused of firing the first shots at the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/chiefs-super-bowl-parade-shooting-kansas-city-62e69a17b469b854afd7bcc3f548d1fc">Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl rally</a>&nbsp;told authorities he felt threatened, while a second man said he pulled the trigger because someone was shooting at him, according to court documents.

Experts say that even though the shooting left one bystander dead and roughly two dozen people injured, 23-year-old Lyndell Mays and 18-year-old Dominic Miller might have good cases for self-defense through the state’s “stand your ground” law.

Missouri is among more than 30 states that have adopted some version of stand your ground laws over the past two decades, said Robert Spitzer, a professor emeritus of political science at the State University of New York, Cortland, whose research focuses on gun policy and politics. While earlier laws allowed people to use force to protect themselves in their homes, stand your ground provides even broader self-defense rights regardless of the location.

Now, the mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl celebration could be a new test of those expanded protections, and comes as self-defense already is at the center of another&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/ralph-yarl/">high-profile Kansas City shooting</a>&nbsp;that left Ralph Yarl wounded.

“This illustrates in a dramatic way the fundamental problem, especially when it’s a public gathering where there are thousands and thousands of people, and even a highly trained police officer often cannot avoid injuring others in a gunfire exchange in a public place,” said Spitzer, who wrote the book “Guns Across America: Reconciling Gun Rules and Rights.”

Trial attorney Daniel Ross described the stand your ground law as a “formidable defense” that he and many other Kansas City defense attorneys anticipate will be used in Mays' and Miller's cases. He said the law puts the onus on the prosecution to disprove claims that a shooting is lawful self-defense.

“Collateral damage under Missouri law is excused if you’re actually engaged in lawful self-defense and there’s other folks injured,” he said.

There are limits to the defense, however, said Eric Ruben, a law professor at the S.M.U. Dedman School of Law in Dallas who has written on stand your ground and self-defense immunity.

“Even though Missouri has robust stand-your-ground laws, that doesn’t mean you can spray bullets into a crowd in the name of defending yourself or others,” Ruben said.

The barrage of gunfire Feb. 14 outside Kansas City’s historic Union Station happened as the celebration that drew an estimated 1 million fans was concluding. A&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/chiefs-super-bowl-parade-shooting-kansas-city-62e69a17b469b854afd7bcc3f548d1fc">woman died</a>&nbsp;while watching the rally with her family, and nearly two dozen others — more than half of them children — were injured and survived.

Kansas City already was grappling with the shooting of Yarl, a Black teenager, who survived a bullet wound to the head when he went to the wrong house in April 2023 to pick up his brothers. Andrew Lester, an 85-year-old white man, is planning to claim&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-wichita-topeka-legislature-gun-politics-6f61a926a56353a4b22ffecf90c46be3">self-defense</a>&nbsp;when he goes to trial in October. His attorney said the retiree was terrified by the stranger on his doorstep.

While the Super Bowl celebration shooting was a far different scenario, it raises anew questions about how far people can go to protect themselves and what happens when the innocent become victims.

Mays and Miller are each charged with second-degree murder and other counts.

Probable cause statements suggest that both men felt threatened. Mays said he picked out one person in a group at random and started shooting because they said, “I'm going to get you,” and he took that to mean, “I'm going to kill you,” the statement said.

Miller said under questioning that he fired four or five times because someone was shooting at him. His friend, Marques Harris, told&nbsp;<a href="https://fox4kc.com/news/friend-says-chiefs-parade-shooting-suspect-was-only-protecting-him/">WDAF-TV</a>&nbsp;that Miller was only trying to protect him after he was shot in the neck.

Miller’s attorney didn’t return phone and email messages seeking comment. No attorney was listed for Mays in online court records.

Two juveniles also face&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/chiefs-super-bowl-parade-shooting-kansas-city-278e2d3e2cfece1cbe958511e54127ad">gun-related and resisting arrest</a>&nbsp;charges.

Missouri has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/chiefs-super-bowl-parade-shooting-kansas-city-938583b1e9aa3b3a45f8a012e7b80fee">few firearm regulations</a>, and two of its cities — Kansas City and St. Louis — annually have among the nation's highest homicide rates. Missouri’s current Republican lawmakers have largely defended the state’s gun laws, instead blaming prosecutors and other local elected officials in the two cities.

And Republican Gov. Mike Parson, speaking to reporters last week, cited societal problems — not guns — as the reason for the violence. “I believe it's much more than a gun," he said.

When&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/missouri-lawmakers-loosen-gun-laws-back-voter-photo-id-c973268d37704b9b9b221e59c5b5dc7d?utm_source=copy&amp;utm_medium=share">Republican lawmakers in 2016</a>&nbsp;expanded the state's already-extensive self-defense protections by enacting the current stand your ground law, Black Missouri lawmakers raised concerns. The law also allowed most adults to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/missouri-lawmakers-loosen-gun-laws-back-voter-photo-id-c973268d37704b9b9b221e59c5b5dc7d?utm_source=copy&amp;utm_medium=share">carry concealed guns</a>&nbsp;without a permit.

Racial disparities are rife among those who invoke the defense, with an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/american-criminal-justice-color-blind-statistics-say-no">Urban Institute</a>&nbsp;study showing white shooters are more likely to benefit than Black defendants.

The issue was raised when&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ahmaud-arbery-shootings-george-floyd-race-and-ethnicity-police-e063accd716fa3d0ee5f175163c0c5cb">Kyle Rittenhouse</a>, a white teen, was acquitted of killing two people and wounding a third during a 2020 protest against racism and police brutality in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after testifying he acted in self-defense. Rittenhouse’s actions became a flashpoint in the debate over guns, vigilantism and racial injustice in the U.S.

The shooting death of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/trayvon-martin">Trayvon Martin</a>, a Black 17-year-old, by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/george-zimmerman">George Zimmerman</a>&nbsp;also spurred concerns about stand your ground laws. Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watchman who thought Martin looked suspicious, wasn’t arrested for 44 days after the Feb. 26, 2012, shooting as police in Sanford, Florida, insisted that Florida’s stand your ground law prohibited charges.

Zimmerman was eventually arrested and charged, but his attorneys chose not to pursue a stand your ground claim, which could have resulted in the dismissal of murder changes as well as immunity from prosecution. But during the trial, the law was essentially used as part of his self-defense argument. Jurors found him not guilty.

In Georgia, which also has a stand your ground law, three white men accused of fatally shooting&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-ahmaud-arberys-killing-spurred-a-national-reckoning-on-race">Ahmaud Arbery</a>&nbsp;in 2020 claimed self-defense. Travis McMichael, his father Greg McMichael and neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan claimed they chased Arbery, who was Black, because they thought he was a burglar. All three were&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/watch-live-three-men-convicted-of-the-murder-of-ahmaud-arbery-will-be-sentenced-for-the-killing">convicted of murder</a>.

In 2022, Wichita, Kansas, area district attorney Marc Bennett was critical of the state’s stand your ground law when he announced that he wouldn’t file charges over the death of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/wichita-kansas-a51f619b8b196987e74b046ac399680c">Cedric Lofton</a>, a Black 17-year-old who was restrained facedown for more than 30 minutes at a juvenile detention center. Bennett said the law prevented him from bringing charges because staff members were protecting themselves.

With the Chiefs parade case unfolding, it is time to look anew at these laws, said Melba Pearson, a former homicide prosecutor who is now the director of prosecution projects at the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy at Florida International University.

“What are truly the limits in terms of stand your ground and what really falls into the category of self-defense?" she asked. "Do we need to revisit what stand your ground looks like?”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/2/1708018861457.jpeg" alt="FILE photo-Police clear the area following a shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs NFL football Super Bowl celebration in Kansas City(AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann)." />
 <figcaption>FILE photo-Police clear the area following a shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs NFL football Super Bowl celebration in Kansas City(AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann).</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The man accused of firing the first shots at the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/chiefs-super-bowl-parade-shooting-kansas-city-62e69a17b469b854afd7bcc3f548d1fc">Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl rally</a>&nbsp;told authorities he felt threatened, while a second man said he pulled the trigger because someone was shooting at him, according to court documents.Experts say that even though the shooting left one bystander dead and roughly two dozen people injured, 23-year-old Lyndell Mays and 18-year-old Dominic Miller might have good cases for self-defense through the state’s “stand your ground” law.Missouri is among more than 30 states that have adopted some version of stand your ground laws over the past two decades, said Robert Spitzer, a professor emeritus of political science at the State University of New York, Cortland, whose research focuses on gun policy and politics. While earlier laws allowed people to use force to protect themselves in their homes, stand your ground provides even broader self-defense rights regardless of the location.Now, the mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl celebration could be a new test of those expanded protections, and comes as self-defense already is at the center of another&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/ralph-yarl/">high-profile Kansas City shooting</a>&nbsp;that left Ralph Yarl wounded.“This illustrates in a dramatic way the fundamental problem, especially when it’s a public gathering where there are thousands and thousands of people, and even a highly trained police officer often cannot avoid injuring others in a gunfire exchange in a public place,” said Spitzer, who wrote the book “Guns Across America: Reconciling Gun Rules and Rights.”Trial attorney Daniel Ross described the stand your ground law as a “formidable defense” that he and many other Kansas City defense attorneys anticipate will be used in Mays' and Miller's cases. He said the law puts the onus on the prosecution to disprove claims that a shooting is lawful self-defense.“Collateral damage under Missouri law is excused if you’re actually engaged in lawful self-defense and there’s other folks injured,” he said.There are limits to the defense, however, said Eric Ruben, a law professor at the S.M.U. Dedman School of Law in Dallas who has written on stand your ground and self-defense immunity.“Even though Missouri has robust stand-your-ground laws, that doesn’t mean you can spray bullets into a crowd in the name of defending yourself or others,” Ruben said.The barrage of gunfire Feb. 14 outside Kansas City’s historic Union Station happened as the celebration that drew an estimated 1 million fans was concluding. A&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/chiefs-super-bowl-parade-shooting-kansas-city-62e69a17b469b854afd7bcc3f548d1fc">woman died</a>&nbsp;while watching the rally with her family, and nearly two dozen others — more than half of them children — were injured and survived.Kansas City already was grappling with the shooting of Yarl, a Black teenager, who survived a bullet wound to the head when he went to the wrong house in April 2023 to pick up his brothers. Andrew Lester, an 85-year-old white man, is planning to claim&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/kansas-wichita-topeka-legislature-gun-politics-6f61a926a56353a4b22ffecf90c46be3">self-defense</a>&nbsp;when he goes to trial in October. His attorney said the retiree was terrified by the stranger on his doorstep.While the Super Bowl celebration shooting was a far different scenario, it raises anew questions about how far people can go to protect themselves and what happens when the innocent become victims.Mays and Miller are each charged with second-degree murder and other counts.Probable cause statements suggest that both men felt threatened. Mays said he picked out one person in a group at random and started shooting because they said, “I'm going to get you,” and he took that to mean, “I'm going to kill you,” the statement said.Miller said under questioning that he fired four or five times because someone was shooting at him. His friend, Marques Harris, told&nbsp;<a href="https://fox4kc.com/news/friend-says-chiefs-parade-shooting-suspect-was-only-protecting-him/">WDAF-TV</a>&nbsp;that Miller was only trying to protect him after he was shot in the neck.Miller’s attorney didn’t return phone and email messages seeking comment. No attorney was listed for Mays in online court records.Two juveniles also face&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/chiefs-super-bowl-parade-shooting-kansas-city-278e2d3e2cfece1cbe958511e54127ad">gun-related and resisting arrest</a>&nbsp;charges.Missouri has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/chiefs-super-bowl-parade-shooting-kansas-city-938583b1e9aa3b3a45f8a012e7b80fee">few firearm regulations</a>, and two of its cities — Kansas City and St. Louis — annually have among the nation's highest homicide rates. Missouri’s current Republican lawmakers have largely defended the state’s gun laws, instead blaming prosecutors and other local elected officials in the two cities.And Republican Gov. Mike Parson, speaking to reporters last week, cited societal problems — not guns — as the reason for the violence. “I believe it's much more than a gun," he said.When&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/missouri-lawmakers-loosen-gun-laws-back-voter-photo-id-c973268d37704b9b9b221e59c5b5dc7d?utm_source=copy&amp;utm_medium=share">Republican lawmakers in 2016</a>&nbsp;expanded the state's already-extensive self-defense protections by enacting the current stand your ground law, Black Missouri lawmakers raised concerns. The law also allowed most adults to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/missouri-lawmakers-loosen-gun-laws-back-voter-photo-id-c973268d37704b9b9b221e59c5b5dc7d?utm_source=copy&amp;utm_medium=share">carry concealed guns</a>&nbsp;without a permit.Racial disparities are rife among those who invoke the defense, with an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/american-criminal-justice-color-blind-statistics-say-no">Urban Institute</a>&nbsp;study showing white shooters are more likely to benefit than Black defendants.The issue was raised when&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ahmaud-arbery-shootings-george-floyd-race-and-ethnicity-police-e063accd716fa3d0ee5f175163c0c5cb">Kyle Rittenhouse</a>, a white teen, was acquitted of killing two people and wounding a third during a 2020 protest against racism and police brutality in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after testifying he acted in self-defense. Rittenhouse’s actions became a flashpoint in the debate over guns, vigilantism and racial injustice in the U.S.The shooting death of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/trayvon-martin">Trayvon Martin</a>, a Black 17-year-old, by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/george-zimmerman">George Zimmerman</a>&nbsp;also spurred concerns about stand your ground laws. Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watchman who thought Martin looked suspicious, wasn’t arrested for 44 days after the Feb. 26, 2012, shooting as police in Sanford, Florida, insisted that Florida’s stand your ground law prohibited charges.Zimmerman was eventually arrested and charged, but his attorneys chose not to pursue a stand your ground claim, which could have resulted in the dismissal of murder changes as well as immunity from prosecution. But during the trial, the law was essentially used as part of his self-defense argument. Jurors found him not guilty.In Georgia, which also has a stand your ground law, three white men accused of fatally shooting&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-ahmaud-arberys-killing-spurred-a-national-reckoning-on-race">Ahmaud Arbery</a>&nbsp;in 2020 claimed self-defense. Travis McMichael, his father Greg McMichael and neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan claimed they chased Arbery, who was Black, because they thought he was a burglar. All three were&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/watch-live-three-men-convicted-of-the-murder-of-ahmaud-arbery-will-be-sentenced-for-the-killing">convicted of murder</a>.In 2022, Wichita, Kansas, area district attorney Marc Bennett was critical of the state’s stand your ground law when he announced that he wouldn’t file charges over the death of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/wichita-kansas-a51f619b8b196987e74b046ac399680c">Cedric Lofton</a>, a Black 17-year-old who was restrained facedown for more than 30 minutes at a juvenile detention center. Bennett said the law prevented him from bringing charges because staff members were protecting themselves.With the Chiefs parade case unfolding, it is time to look anew at these laws, said Melba Pearson, a former homicide prosecutor who is now the director of prosecution projects at the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy at Florida International University.“What are truly the limits in terms of stand your ground and what really falls into the category of self-defense?" she asked. "Do we need to revisit what stand your ground looks like?”