Fear of crime, high levels of anxiety blamed for ‘wrong address’ shootings

A spate of “wrong address” shootings across the country has analysts blaming a growing fear of crime as well as stress and guns.

Studies such as the American Psychological Association’s annual Stress in America reports have shown adults struggling with unprecedented levels of anxiety over rising crime rates, mass shootings, divisive politics, inflation, racism debates and the waning COVID-19 pandemic.

“People are hypervigilant, frustrated, stressed and they are loaded with powerful weapons,” said clinical psychologist Thomas Plante, an association member who teaches at Santa Clara University. “We have an ‘us versus them’ mentality now that is dangerous.”

Recent police reports have noted property owners shooting at young people who accidentally invaded their spaces:

• In Kansas City, Missouri, homeowner Andrew Lester shot Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old Black teenager who went to the wrong address to pick up his siblings on April 13, police said. The 84-year-old pleaded “not guilty” in county court on April 19 to felony charges of first-degree assault and armed criminal action.

• In Davie, Florida, a police report says Antonio Caccavale, 43, fired several rounds from his handgun into the tires of two teenagers who had mistakenly driven onto his property while making an Instacart delivery on April 15.

• That same day in rural upstate New York, police said 65-year-old Kevin Monahan fatally shot Kaylin Gillis, 20, when she mistakenly drove into his driveway with three other young adults looking for a friend’s home. Officials have charged Mr. Monahan with second-degree murder.

• On April 18, Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., 25, shot two Texas cheerleaders after they mistakenly got into the wrong car in a parking lot after a late-night practice, police said. One cheerleader got back into her car after realizing the mistake, but Mr. Rodriguez shot her anyway.

A spokesperson for the FBI declined to comment on the shootings.

Conservatives point to a decline of trust in political and law enforcement leaders to protect law-abiding citizens from spikes in carjackings, home burglaries, homicides and muggings.

House Republicans, in a recent hearing, questioned New York officials about a rise in violent crime in the nation’s largest city over the past two years. From Jan. 1 to April 16, felony assaults were up roughly 8% and auto thefts about 11% from the same period last year, according to NYPD crime data.

On Thursday, New York City’s ABC-7 news outlet reported that police had arrested a serial bank robber on parole who choked an 81-year-old woman while holding up another bank. A parole officer recognized Gerald Derosse, 54, in an April 6 surveillance video as he threatened to “blow her brains out” if the teller didn’t give him $205.

Conservatives say jumpy gun owners, not the firearms themselves, are to blame for the spate of “wrong address” incidents.

“At a time of low social trust and rising crime, when people are already on edge, it’s not surprising that we have an uptick of these tragic incidents,” said lawyer Ilya Shapiro, director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute. “Gun owners need to recognize that their constitutional right to defend their home isn’t a license to fire at any unexpected car pulling up in their driveway.”

Gun sales have surged to record highs since the start of COVID-19 lockdowns in March 2020. There were 1.6 million background checks for new firearm purchases in March, marking a record-high 48 straight months of sales above 1 million, according to the latest figures from the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

The gun industry group has attributed the high sales numbers to a surge in first-time gun ownership among women, millennials and Black Americans who are concerned for their safety.

Liberals, meanwhile, blame permissive gun regulations and conservative state policies such as “stand your ground” laws, which allow homeowners to use deadly force to repel intruders.

Several Republican-led states have loosened their firearms restrictions. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill in April that eliminated permit requirements for concealed carry in most public places.

“We have made it so easy to carry a gun and shoot first, ask questions later that people believe they can shoot with impunity,” said Josh Horwitz, co-director of the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at Johns Hopkins University, which opposes “stand your ground” and open carry laws. “So we need to change our laws, and people need to put their firearms down.”

Others say homeowners have good reason to feel like they are on their own when they hear leftist politicians talk about easing prison sentences and keeping repeat offenders on the streets.

They point to several trends, including an uptick in “no bail” laws that turn offenders loose after arrest and a new generation of “soft-on-crime” city prosecutors.

“The left’s war on cops, the movement to defund the police, the eagerness of the press and many politicians to assume police misconduct whenever cops use force have left police demoralized and ineffective,” said Peter Wood, president of the conservative National Association of Scholars and a former associate provost at Boston University.

“Predators roam freely and police cannot or will not do anything to protect the general public — at least, that’s what many have concluded,” Mr. Wood said. “So people arm themselves, and some of those who are armed act hastily when confronted with what they wrongly believe is an imminent danger.”

Some experts have called on Republicans and Democrats to work together to reduce “wrong address” shootings, even though that bipartisanship seems unlikely as the 2024 presidential election approaches.

Robert Tuttle, a George Washington University law professor and expert on political philosophy, blames “law and order” Republicans for creating a “culture of fear” dating back to President Nixon’s use of late-1960s unrest as a wedge issue in his political campaigns.

He said Democrats have sometimes stoked terror by trying to outdo Republicans on being tough on crime.

“I think it goes back to the political incentives that come from instilling fear in people,” Mr. Tuttle said. “It’s this idea that it’s reasonable to fear ‘the other,’ who for a lot of Americans is Black. This is a way people win elections.”

He blames an attitude of “radical individualism” for convincing many adults that they need guns. He pointed out that many wrong-address shootings have been in rural areas, far from inner-city crime hubs.

The moral and legal justification for shooting in self-defense depends on which fears are “reasonable,” said Mike Farrell, president of Arizona-based Smart Firearms Training Devices, which sells training guns to police departments and the military.

“If you are in your house and a car unknown to you simply drives up your driveway, it is not reasonable to assume this person is a threat to you,” Mr. Farrell said. “Your perception of risk must be reasonable in order to use deadly force against another person.”