A Fayette County grand jury on Thursday declined to charge a man who shot and killed a man in April who was beating on his front door.
Tadarvis Gardner, 22, told police he was at his home, on Chelsea Woods Court, when he heard what he thought was someone trying to kick in the front door.
Gardner shot through the front door, fatally striking Andreas Lobsiger once in his upper body, police said.
Lobsiger, 36, who was unarmed, apparently had confused the house with a friend’s home that was three houses down, friends said. Lobsiger had been outside sleeping in a truck after a night of drinking.
Prosecutors presented the case to a grand jury this week. It declined to issue an indictment.
Lobsiger’s girlfriend, Amber Goins, said she was bitter about the decision. Gardner should have faced some consequences for his actions, even if it were just probation, she said.
She noted that Gardner had told police that he shot through the door without looking outside or asking who was there.
“I don’t think it is really right that he walks away with nothing,” Goins said. “What if it was a child? Or his mother, or brother or sister?”
Fayette Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Larson did not return calls for comment. During TV news interviews, Larson referred to a 2006 law, commonly called the castle doctrine. Under the law, Kentucky residents can shoot an intruder without fear of being arrested. The National Rifle Association has lobbied for such laws across the country.
Goins says the law doesn’t make any sense. People should not be allowed to shoot someone who is not even in their home, she said.
“If somebody is beating on my door, I would think they are in trouble,” Goins said. “You’re just not up at six in the morning with a pistol in your lap.”
Lobsiger is survived by two daughters. He was living with Goins and her two sons, she said.
Lobsiger had just started a new business, a tattoo parlor, with a friend.
“He was all the way around a really nice guy, real genuine,” Goins said.
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