Male reportedly shatters glass front door of jewelry store in middle of night. His problem? Armed store owner is inside.

A yet-unnamed male reportedly broke the glass front door of a Baltimore jewelry store with a brick in the middle of the night last week — and it proved to be a fateful choice, as the store owner was inside at the time.

A friend of the store owner shared the following account of Thursday's incident with WJZ-TV on his behalf. The station said:

• The store owner was watching a movie around 2 a.m.
• The store owner said someone broke through his glass front door with a brick, so he fired a warning shot and said, "Freeze!"
• The intruder ducked, then popped back up, and the store owner shot him.

Baltimore police described it as a commercial burglary at the intersection of Fleet and Madeira Streets that resulted in the fatal shooting of a 39-year-old man, WJZ said.

'There are very much viable defenses for someone in the business owner's — the jewelry store owner's — shoes right now.'

The station added that the shooting was caught on video and shared with a WJZ reporter. While the camera owner declined to allow WJZ to publish the images, the camera owner did share them with police. The station said the silent video shows a man at the store's entrance who appears to enter the business — and seconds later, he falls to the pavement.

WJZ noted in its Friday story that "bullet holes remained in two windows at the store" and that the broken glass in the store's front door "has since been covered." The station added that the store's owner reportedly lived above his shop.

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In a follow-up story, WJZ reported that the shooting has raised questions regarding when — and where — lethal force is allowed when you believe you are in danger.

The station said the standards differ in Maryland depending on if you are in your home or in public. WJZ said the law gives you more latitude to use deadly force if you're at home and have a "reasonable" fear that your life is in danger — a.k.a. the Castle Doctrine.

But the station said if you are in public, you have a "duty to retreat" and only can use deadly force as a last resort — and the force should be proportional to the threat.

Attorney Warren Alperstein — who is not affiliated with the jewelry store case — noted to WJZ that "if you're in an alley up against a brick wall at a dead end, and there's no way to get out ... there's no way to retreat — that would be an exception to the requirement."

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The station said in the case of Thursday's fatal shooting at the jewelry store, the store owner lived in the same building as his business. Alperstein added to WJZ that "if it's determined it was in his home, then he does not have to first prove that he retreated before he used the deadly force."

The attorney also told the station that "there are very much viable defenses for someone in the business owner's — the jewelry store owner's — shoes right now."

WJZ said Baltimore police and the state's attorney's office declined interview requests.

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