Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
ST. LOUIS COUNTY — The woman shot to death in Glasgow Village this week was trying to rob an acquaintance in a home invasion when he killed her, authorities said Wednesday.
The man who fatally shot Shabria Furlow won’t face charges because prosecutors decided it was a justified homicide.
“It’s just legitimate self-defense,” Christopher King, a spokesman for the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney’s office, told the Post-Dispatch. “There’s no evidence of a crime.”
Furlow, 23, died at a home in the 300 block of Lancashire Road about 3:20 a.m. Tuesday. The scene is in unincorporated north St. Louis County.
Furlow, of Bridgeton, was among several people trying to commit a robbery or home invasion, said Sgt. Tracy Panus of the St. Louis County Police Department.
Furlow knew the man who shot her, King said. They knew each other from Arkansas, where Furlow has many relatives. The man who shot her was visiting the home on Lancashire and did not live there, King said.
“She shows up with a number of armed males,” King said. Furlow approached the home with four men, two of them carrying guns, King said. Police haven’t caught the men who were with Furlow so they don’t know their motive for the confrontation.
After the fatal shooting, detectives questioned the man, and Panus said he was cooperative.
Detectives turned their findings over to the St. Louis County prosecutor, Wesley Bell, whose office decided not to file charges. King said the detective and assistant prosecutor agreed that it was a case of self-defense.
Under Missouri’s self-defense law, known as the Castle Doctrine, people who encounter an intruder in their homes are given more leeway in using deadly force. The law allows the person to use that force without fear of being charged or sued.
Panus refused to release the name of the man who killed Furlow because he wasn’t arrested or charged. She said she didn’t know how old he is.
Furlow, who went by the nickname Bria, lived in the 3900 block of Brittany Circle Drive in Bridgeton. Court records show no criminal history in Missouri for Furlow, only a speeding ticket issued in Creve Coeur in March. She was the mother of two children, said her uncle Mark Johnson of Blytheville, Arkansas. Johnson said relatives are trying to cope with her death and the allegation that she had been involved in a crime.
“It’s tough on us right now,” he said.