Questions are surfacing over whether a 23-year-old woman who was charged with murder in a deadly shooting acted in self-defense after she posted videos on social media showing how an altercation with two other women ended in gunfire.
Akira Fletcher was charged with aggravated murder and felonious assault after a shooting in Cincinnati, Ohio, on July 12 that killed 29-year-old Nyema Norton and injured another woman.
Norton died at a local hospital from her injuries on Aug. 26.
Four days later, Fletcher was booked into Hamilton County Jail and was charged with Norton’s murder.
The day before her arrest, Fletcher posted two videos she recorded of her altercation with Norton in the parking lot of a shopping center, explaining what took place during the confrontation and showing how it escalated to a shooting.
The first clip shows a woman Fletcher identifies as Norton in her post, holding what looks like a knife and then throwing a rock at Fletcher. Fletcher then films Norton and her friend walking around her car and narrates the scene.
“She just threw another rock at me,” Fletcher says. “As you can see. She’s slashing my tires. She’s slashing my tires. Her and her cousin — slashing my tires. As you can see. I have a gun in my purse. I have a gun in my purse. They’re trying to make me get out of the car.”
A loud noise is heard from the back of Fletcher’s car, and viewers can see Norton behind the vehicle after the back window is smashed and broken.
As both assailants walk away, Fletcher gets out of her car to tell them, “You’re going to jail,” and, “You should be happy you don’t get clapped.”
One of them returns and engages in a back-and-forth with Fletcher before walking away again. At that point, Fletcher gets back in her car, turns the ignition, and appears to start driving away.
The second clip Fletcher posted shows the moments the confrontation escalated.
Through her broken driver’s side window, Fletcher yells out to both women as they’re walking on a sidewalk, telling them, “You’re going to jail.”
The woman, who appears to be Norton, approaches the car, picks up an item on the ground, and appears to assault Fletcher after Fletcher tells her, “Hit me again.” At that point, Fletcher pulls out her gun and opens fire. The video ends after Fletcher fires four shots.
“I was being punched in my face, rocks thrown at me, and Nyema trying to get in my car,” Fletcher wrote in her Facebook post. “She busted my driver side window out to attack me, she continued to try and get in my car to stab me and I let her hit me while I was on the phone with 911 asking for help. I told them to stop over and over and over again. I never got out my car to fight or anything and I allowed her to punch me more then once.”
Fletcher’s post drew mixed reactions. Some people believed she acted in self-defense, while others thought the shooting could have been avoided entirely. Several commenters advised her to delete the videos, stating they won’t help her case.
“You defended yourself,” one commenter wrote.
“You really should have just left once you got in your car you were out of danger,” another person wrote.
In Fletcher’s case, a self-defense claim might not be out of the realm of possibility under Ohio’s “stand your ground” law, which went into effect in the state in 2021.
The statute states that no person has a duty to retreat from any place that person “lawfully has a right to be,” including public places like parking lots, before using force in self-defense if that person is caught up in a conflict that would cause great bodily harm.
This means that citizens have no legal obligation to try to flee a dangerous situation before acting in self-defense. The law gives them the right to stand their ground and use lethal force if necessary to defend themselves, their homes, vehicles, or other people.
Self-defense can be used as a reasonable legal defense in Ohio when evidence shows the defendant was in imminent danger, when the use of force is proportionate to the amount of danger the defendant is in, when the use of force is necessary to prevent harm, and when there’s proof showing the defendant wasn’t the initial aggressor.
Police previously stated that Fletcher acted in self-defense, according to WXIX, before prosecutors charged her with murder. She was jailed without bond.
Court documents revealed an ongoing feud between Norton and Fletcher. According to WKRC, a complaint filed in Hamilton County Municipal Court states that Norton allegedly threatened to shoot Fletcher and pointed a gun at her in May. Both women were supposed to appear in court for that case in September.
