Police in Tuscaloosa, Alabama are still investigating, but right now all signs point to self-defense in a shooting on Sunday that left a man dead and a family shaken.

Authorities say Namarcus Giles, Jr. was found dead in an apartment by officers responding to a shots fired call, and the man and woman inside the dwelling reported that Giles had broken down the front door to get inside.

Captain Jack Kennedy, commander of the multiagency unit, told local media that the Tuscaloosa Police Department was initially called to Aspen Village Apartments on a shooting, where officers located Namarcus Giles, Jr. dead from his injuries at the scene.

He then explained that the primary residents of the apartment, who were brother and sister, along with other witnesses, were still on scene and cooperative.

“Giles had been in a previous relationship with the sister,” Kennedy said. “It was reported that Giles had been physically abusive to her in the past … The residents reported that during the day Saturday Giles made threats to come to the apartment. Giles later arrived at the apartment, broke down the door, entered, and began physically assaulting the sister. As this was occurring, her brother armed himself. The brother fired his weapon and Giles was struck, and did not survive.”

According to Kennedy the siblings remained on scene and were cooperative with the responding officers. The police captain also noted that the physical evidence found by investigators are consistent with the victim’s recounting of what took place. While the investigation continues, all evidence released to date points to this being a justifiable homicide in defense of another.

This defensive gun use comes on the heels of Alabama Democrats demanding the passage of several new gun control laws in response to the shooting at a Dadeville, Alabama teen’s birthday party in which four people were killed and more than two dozen were injured. Police investigating that case have arrested six individuals, all between the ages of 15 and 20. Before the first arrests had even been made, however, anti-gun lawmakers were already demanding a gun control response to the shootings.

“Several days prior to the shooting in Dadeville, I appeared on Capitol Journal to discuss legislation that I’ve introduced in the Senate to establish a procedure for removing firearms from those who are deemed to be an immediate and present danger to themselves or others, more commonly known as red flag bills,” said Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, during the press conference at Integrity Funeral Home in Hueytown, just out of Birmingham.

“During that interview, just three days before the mass shooting in Dadeville, I said I don’t want us in Alabama to have to respond to a mass shooting before we do something… and yet it happened. Just three days later, and we’re standing here. I am tired of hearing the wails and cries of parents who have lost their loved ones, and elected officials have not acted. We must do something.”

… At the press conference, Coleman was joined by a number of state Democratic leaders, including Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, and Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, who both called on their legislative colleagues to work with them in passing more effective gun safety laws.

… Givan went on to call for a ban on the purchasing of assault rifles for anyone under 21, a measure she had previously tried to implement with a bill in 2018, though it failed to become law.

Smitherman joined in Givan and Coleman’s calls for gun safety legislation, calling on his colleagues to pass laws banning weapon modifiers such as trigger activators, which similar to bump stocks, are devices that can significantly increase the rate of fire of a semi-automatic firearm.

He also called for more intensive background checks for firearm purchases that include emotional and mental health checks, and called for legislators to support a bill introduced recently that would hold parents criminally liable were their firearm to be brought to school by their child.