A 65-year-old man who gunned down an armed thug in self-defense has been inexplicably charged by radical prosecutors.
Charles Foehner was threatened and backed into a corner by a disturbed 32-year-old man named Cody Gonzalez who intended to rob. He had no choice but to shoot the crazed young man after he lunged at him with a weapon.
Police authorities said the incident occurred in a driveway on 82nd Avenue in Kew Gardens at around 2 a.m. Wednesday.
Eyewitness News reviewed surveillance video showing a clear-cut case of self-defense on Foehner’s part. The tape first shows Gonzalez confronting the Foehner from roughly 40 feet away and reportedly demanding cash and cigarettes.
Foehner waves off Gonzalez in an apparent effort to warn him but the robber ignores Foehner and continues to saunter toward him. This causes the old man to draw his gun from 20 feet away according to Eyewitness News.
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Gonzalez then makes a fatal error: he decides to charge Foehner while waving an object in the air. The old man responds by firing multiple shots from 8 feet away, hitting the thief in the chest.
Surveillance video next shows Gonzalez trying to race off before collapsing on the street.
Following the incident, the Queens District Attorney’s office charged Foehner with criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a firearm. Other criminal charges remain on the table including murder according to the New York Post.
Gonzalez had no business running free to begin with. He has had 15 prior arrests since 2004 including robbery, burglary, and drug possession according to the New York Post.
In addition his extensive criminal history, Gonzalez suffers from mental illness and was living in halfway house at the time of the incident. His family said he started getting into trouble once he stopped taking his pills.
“He wasn’t a bad kid. He really wasn’t,” Anthony Aguilar, who is a cousin to Gonzalez’s adopted mother, told the New York Daily News. “It’s ‘cause he stopped taking his damn pills. He was fine when he was taking his medication.”
Aguilar also revealed something some might consider shocking: he told the Daily News he did not think Foehner should have been charged.
If he tried to rob him, the guy’s only defending himself. You can’t blame him for defending himself.
Other members of Gonzalez’s family also told the Daily News they did not fault Foehner.
“We don’t fault the shooter,” said Stephan Gonzalez, 35, who is related to the slain crook’s adopted family by marriage and has known him for more than 12 years.
“We all feel that Cody should had been in a psych facility. If anything, the state failed him.”
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