Local News in Brief : No Charges Filed in Slaying

Citing a 1984 state law that permits homeowners to use deadly force against intruders, the district attorney’s office has declined to file charges against a 65-year-old man who shot and killed a transient Tuesday in Torrance.

James McKeefrey was released from the Torrance Jail on Thursday morning, two days after he was arrested for the murder of an unidentified 39-year-old male transient.

Police said McKeefrey was inside a vacant house he owns at 4215 W. Artesia Blvd. about 9 p.m. Tuesday when the transient broke in through a back door. McKeefrey fired two shots from a .44-caliber pistol, one of which hit the intruder in the head and killed him, said Torrance Police Sgt. Jack McDonald.

McKeefrey was arrested on suspicion of murder, in part because he refused to discuss the shooting other than to admit that he did it, McDonald said. But a broken windowpane with the transient’s fingerprints and other evidence proved that the man had broken in, McDonald said.

People who shoot intruders are presumed to have acted with “reasonable fear” and are justified in using deadly force, according to state law.

McKeefrey lives in Huntington Beach and occasionally visits the Torrance house, where he lived for 30 years, neighbors said. The lot is overgrown with weeds, they said, and transients periodically inhabit the house.