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Yoshihiro Hattori: The door knock that killed a Japanese teenager in US
2019/10/20 bbc.com
Halloween
1992
High School
Guns
Legislation
Family
Louisiana
//ANOTHER VERDICT IN JAPANESE STUDENT DEATH
Thursday, Sept. 15, 1994
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A Louisiana judge found a Baton Rouge homeowner's explanation for gunning down a Japanese exchange student a little thin and awarded the youth's parents $653,000.
Two years ago, homeowner Rodney Peairs said, he heard a knock on his front door, then shot the crazed attacker on his doorstep dead, out of fear.
It turned out to be a lost 16-year-old Yoshihiro Hattori, dressed up in a John Travolta-style disco suit for a nearby Halloween party.
The verdict might help repair Japan's perception of a violent America, reinforced when Peairs, 32, was acquitted of manslaughter in the case last year.//