Photo courtesy of News9.
According to Atlanta Black Star, LaRue Bratcher, 34, was released on a $400,000 bond after spending an entire year in jail. Bratcher, who is Black, was arrested after killing a white burglar on his property in Oklahoma in May of 2020. The Oklahoma chapter of Black Lives Matter paid for Bratcher’s bond.
Bratcher, an Army veteran, faces a first-degree murder charge for killing the burglar, 42-year-old Daniel Hardwick. Bratcher shot Hardwick through the door after firing several warning shots. He then called the police, who seemed to agree that the shooting was legal, and Bratcher was only charged with cultivating marijuana without a license.
The father of five was on his property where he has a legal, medical marijuana grow shop called Premium Smoke. Still, because his license had recently expired, the police arrested Bratcher and confiscated more than a million dollars worth of marijuana.
Oklahoma City Police Department spokesman Gary Knight told News4 that Hardwick had been trying to break into the shop while Bratcher was there.
“He was trying to break in when the business owner, who was inside the business at the time, apparently opened fire with a handgun, striking and killing the man who was breaking in.”
Oklahoma is a stand-your-ground state, and the law allows for lethal force if someone is in the process of forcefully entering, or had unlawfully entered, a home, occupied vehicle, or business. However, prosecutors contend that because Bratcher’s license had expired, he was a felon, and prosecutors took advantage of the loophole to prosecute him for murder. Bratcher could spend the rest of his life in prison if he is found guilty.
The veteran’s bond was only $5,000 when he was first booked for growing cannabis without a license, but once the District Attorney’s Office got involved, he was charged with second-degree murder. They tried to get Blatcher to agree to a plea deal for the murder charge, but he declined. It was then that prosecutors charged him with first-degree murder. They also called him a “threat to the community” because of his status as a veteran.
His wife, Vicky Bratcher, believes that if her husband were a white man, he would not be facing first-degree murder charges.
“I feel like this was an injustice for the simple fact that if the roles were reversed, if this was a white person inside the facility, he would not be in this situation,” she said.
Bratcher is currently under house arrest. His trial is scheduled for October 11.