Hattori v. Peairs
Louisiana Court of Appeal
662 So.2d 509 (1995)
Sixteen-year-old Japanese exchange student Yoshihiro Hattori and his friend went to the wrong house looking for a Halloween party. When homeowner Bonnie Peairs slammed the door in fear, her husband Rodney Peairs (defendant) got his gun; Yoshi, still laughing and explaining he was there for the party, kept walking toward Rodney despite being told to freeze, and Rodney shot and killed him. Rodney never actually saw a weapon on Yoshi, who was in fact only carrying a camera, but claimed at trial he feared for his life. Yoshi's parents (plaintiffs) sued for wrongful death, and the trial court ruled in their favor.
Whether the use of a dangerous weapon in self-defense is justified when the actor's fear of danger, though genuine, was not objectively reasonable.