Philly-area authorities Investigate Shooting Death :: 12/25/2011

PERKIOMENVILLE, Pa. - Authorities are investigating whether a shooting that left one man dead in the driveway of a suburban Philadelphia home and sent another to the hospital was justified under the state's expanded "castle doctrine" of self-defense.

State police in Montgomery County were called to the Upper Frederick Township home at 8:16 p.m. Saturday, where they found 19-year-old Zachary Levin of Barto dead in the driveway. A 34-year-old man was wounded in the arm.

District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman and police said in a statement Monday that a preliminary investigation indicates that the resident fired after the two men attacked him with baseball bats outside his home. Authorities are investigating whether the shooting was a justifiable homicide.

Ferman said authorities would look at whether the shooting was justified under the stand-your-ground provision of the castle doctrine, which was broadened last summer to allow the use of deadly force in self-defense in situations outside a person's home or business. Under previous law, deadly force was not justifiable if a person could safely retreat except when the threat was inside his or her home or business.

District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman and police say the resident fired after the two men attacked him with baseball bats outside his home.

Ferman's statement said a woman called the men after she and the resident argued, and the two men showed up with bats. The resident saw the men poised to attack him and retreated to the rear of the property where his truck was parked and got a handgun from under the front seat, authorities said. Officials say the two men pursued him, threatened to kill him, confronted him outside the truck and started poking him with the bats, and the older one hit the truck at one point.