DENVER — A Colorado Springs man went into the basement of his apartment building and encountered an intruder. Within minutes, he had killed the intruder with his gun.
Although prosecutors and the defense differ on exactly what happened in the basement during that early morning in January 2017, lower courts agreed that Patrick Rau could not be prosecuted for the shooting of Donald Russell. Under a provision of Colorado law, nicknamed the "Make My Day" statute, the occupant of a dwelling may use deadly physical force against a person who enters unlawfully.
On Monday, the state Supreme Court listened as attorneys argued over whether the basement of an apartment building qualifies as a "dwelling" under the law. In doing so, the justices heard two different versions of life under "Make My Day": either the court would be sanctioning chaos in hallways and common areas as tenants gun down anyone unfamiliar to them, or it would simply give renters the same rights to self-defense as single-family homeowners.
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