Sometimes you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. That is the case if you’re a drug dealing, stolen gun possessing homeowner defending yourself against the break-in of your home. And that was certainly the case for Pennsylvania man, Malique Jamal Black as reported by the Bridgeville Signal Item.
The Bridgeville Signal Item reports that Black, 26, “pleaded guilty in October to weapons and drug charges in three cases dating to 2022 in which prosecutors said he sold drugs and illegally possessed guns. One weapon, a stolen .45-caliber Glock handgun, was used in the Jan. 12, 2024, self-defense shooting of Allen L. Austin Jr., 29.”
Black shot Austin after the man broke into his home where “nearly $40,000 in cash and illegal drugs were kept, police said.”
Black, who was playing video games with friends in an upstairs room at the time, told police he grabbed his gun after he heard glass break and confronted the intruder and shot him as he came toward him on the stairs. There were allegedly other suspects involved in the break-in but they fled the scene and were never identified.
Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli decided not to press charges for the shooting death of Austin, given the circumstances, ruling that the shooting was justified.
Despite skating on a murder charge, “Assistant District Attorney Katie Ranker argued for a lengthy prison sentence for Black, saying his criminal history of repeated illegal gun possessions and pending drug charges led to the fatal shooting,” the Bridgeville Signal Item reported.
Black was already a convicted felon barred from possessing firearms and was also free on bail while awaiting weapons and drug charges at the time of the shooting, prosecutors argued. They suggested the drugs and cash made him a target that ultimately led to the break-in and subsequent shooting.
The judge sentenced Black to serve 5 ½ to 12 years in prison for the illegal gun possession as well as another 2 ½ to 5 years for illegal possession of a firearm related to the original 2022 search of his home in which drugs and guns were found. Black was also charged in 2023 and pleaded guilty to drug charges related to a totally separate search of vehicle during a traffic stop.
It’s amazing this bad character was allowed to be out of jail for so long courtesy of our soft justice system, but with the DA deciding his defensive actions were justified, he literally dodged a bullet where he could’ve been looking at life in prison instead of a max of 17 years.
