PORT HUENEME : Slaying of Shoplifter Called Self-Defense
Port Hueneme police on Monday presented the county district attorney with a report on the fatal shooting of a shoplifter by a liquor store owner last month, saying the evidence supports the owner’s claim of self-defense.
“The feeling here is that from what we’ve gathered, it looks like it is justifiable or self-defense,” Port Hueneme Police Chief John Hopkins said Monday.
But Hopkins stressed that the department does not come to any formal conclusion on the case, and that the district attorney’s office decides whether any charges should be filed.
He said he did not know how long the D.A.’s review would take.
Shin Ung Kang, owner of Anacapa Liquor at 711 E. Port Hueneme Road, shot and killed Port Hueneme resident Timothy Morrison, 23, on Feb. 12 after Morrison allegedly stole a bottle of wine from his store and pulled a knife when confronted in the store’s parking lot.
Kang said that Morrison had threatened him with the knife and that he was acting in self-defense. He was arrested but released after questioning, and Hopkins said no charges have been brought against him.
Earlier in the investigation, police had said that a search for fingerprints on the knife was inconclusive. But Hopkins said Monday that further study did reveal a Morrison print.
“It was definitely Morrison’s print,” Hopkins said. “It puts him in possession of” the knife.
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