Man, 80, Kills Burglar Who Begged for Unborn Child's Life: Cops

''m going to have a baby!' she reportedly pleaded; autopsy shows she wasn't pregnant
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 25, 2014 12:34 PM CDT
Man, 80, Kills Burglar Who Begged for Unborn Child's Life: Cops
Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell leads a news conference on July 24, 2014, in Long Beach, Calif.   (AP Photo/The Press-Telegram, Gregory Yee)

An 80-year-old Long Beach, Calif., man says he gunned down burglary suspect Andrea Miller Tuesday night as she pleaded for the life of her unborn child, reports the AP. “She says, 'Don't shoot me, I'm pregnant, I'm going to have a baby!' And I shot her anyway," Tom Greer told KNBC-TV. And while cops mull whether Greer will be charged or let off for self-defense in Miller's death, there’s another major question to answer: whether 28-year-old Miller actually was pregnant. Despite her desperate appeal to Greer as she tried to flee, police say she didn’t appear to be with child and that an autopsy will clear up if she was. (Update: That autopsy has found she was not pregnant, reports Fox News.)

Miller and her alleged partner in crime, 26-year-old Gus Adams—who were both unarmed, cops say—allegedly pummeled Greer with their hands and “body-slammed” him to the ground when he busted in on the burglary. Greer says he somehow managed to grab his own gun and shot Miller as she ran away. Cops say Adams has been arrested on suspicion of residential burglary as well as murder, because he was involved in a felony crime that resulted in a death. A neighbor tells CBS Los Angeles that Greer is a “nice old man” who’s been the victim of previous break-ins—and Greer suspects that Miller and Adams were responsible for those, too. However, as a legal analyst notes to KNBC, “[Greer] did shoot a person who was trying to get away … he wasn't in imminent danger himself, and the law says you can't shoot somebody under those circumstances.” (More Tom Greer stories.)

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