A murder charge against a Milton man who allegedly shot an armed intruder inside his home last winter has been withdrawn.
The Crown withdrew the second-degree murder charge against Ali Mian during an appearance at the Milton Ontario Court of Justice on Monday.
Mian, then 22, was initially arrested and charged in February after he shot and killed an alleged intruder inside his Gibson Crescent home.
At the time Mian’s lawyer, Jag Virk, told reporters that his client was merely defending himself and “shouldn't be charged with murder.”
“Intruders were in his house. Armed, dangerous. And he protected himself and his mother, that is it,” he said.
Police initially described the shooting as “targeted” but later issued an updated news release which removed that detail.
Meanwhile, police arrested a second suspect at the scene and charged them with one count of break-and-enter and unauthorized possession of a firearm.
They also made a public appeal for information about three other suspects who they said fled the scene in a light-coloured Dodge Charger.
At this point it is not immediately clear why the murder charge against Mian has been withdrawn.
Generally speaking, the Crown must weigh a number of factors when deciding whether to proceed with a prosecution, including whether there is a reasonable prospect of conviction and whether the prosecution is in the public interest.
“I think the Crown came to their senses,” criminal lawyer Joseph Neuberger told CP24 on Monday afternoon. “I don’t think they had a chance of getting 12 people in a jury to convict this gentleman of second-degree murder in circumstances where he and his mother were at extreme risk of serious bodily harm or death. This was clearly a self defence case which would have been made out in front of a jury. So I think the Crown finally did the right thing and withdrew the charge.”
