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After posting videos to social media depicting how an argument with two other women escalated into gunfire, a 23-year-old woman is facing murder charges in a fatal shooting. Some are questioning whether she acted in self-defense.
After a shooting in Cincinnati, Ohio, on July 12, which killed 29-year-old Nyema Norton and injured another woman, Akira Fletcher was charged with aggravated murder and felonious assault.
On August 26, Norton succumbed to her injuries at a nearby hospital.
After four days, Fletcher was taken into custody and charged with the murder of Norton.
Fletcher uploaded two videos the day before her arrest that she had shot in the parking lot of a shopping mall. In them, she detailed the dispute with Norton and how it had progressed to a gunshot.
In the first video, a woman who Fletcher claims is Norton is seen throwing a rock at Fletcher while brandishing what appears to be a knife. As Fletcher describes the scenario, he follows Norton and her buddy as they stroll around her car.
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“She hurled another rock at me,” Fletcher remarks. “Look at it this way. I’m having my tires sliced. I’m having my tires sliced. They slashed my tires—she and her cousin. It is clear to you. Dang, my purse is armed. Dang, my purse is armed. They are attempting to force me to disembark from the vehicle.
After smashing and breaking the back window, viewers can see Norton behind Fletcher’s car, which makes a loud bang.
The victim gets out of her car and confronts the two offenders, telling them, “You’re going to jail,” and adding, “You should be happy you don’t get clapped.”
One of them comes back, starts arguing with Fletcher, and then leaves again. Then Fletcher starts driving away after getting back in her car and turning the key.
Fletcher shared a second video that shows the confrontation getting heated.
As the two women stroll along a sidewalk, Fletcher shouts out to them from her shattered driver’s side window, “You’re going to jail.”
Upon hearing Fletcher say, “Hit me again,” the woman—who seems to be Norton—approaches the car, picks up something from the ground, and then proceeds to attack Fletcher. Fletcher then takes out her rifle and starts firing. Fletcher fires four shots, and the video ends.
In her Facebook post, Fletcher detailed the violence she endured, including punches to the face, rocks hurled at her, and Nyema attempting to get into her car. While I was on the phone with 911 requesting for help, she continued to try to break into my car and stab me; I allowed her to beat me after she broke my driver-side window. I must have yelled out “stop” a thousand times. She punched me more than once, but I never got out of my car to fight or do anything.
Responses to Fletcher’s piece were varied. While some said she was acting in self-defense, others said the shooting should never have happened. The videos won’t help her case, according to several commenters, so she should delete them.
“You stood up for yourself,” remarked one commenter.
“Once you got in your car, you were out of danger. You really should have just left,” someone else wrote.
Under Ohio’s “stand your ground” statute, which became effective in the state in 2021, Fletcher may have a legitimate self-defense claim.
Everyone is entitled to use force in self-defense if they are involved in a fight that could cause grave bodily injury. The laws makes it clear that no one has to leave from any location where they “lawfully have a right to be,” even public spaces like parking lots.
Citizens are not obligated to attempt to exit a dangerous situation before taking action in self-defense, according to the law. Standing firm and using deadly force in self-defense, house defense, vehicle defense, or other person defense is a legal right for them.
If the defendant was in immediate danger, the use of force was proportionate to the danger, the use of force was necessary to prevent harm, and there is proof showing the defendant wasn’t the initial aggressor, then self-defense can be used as a reasonable legal defense in Ohio.
Before prosecutors charged Fletcher with murder, police had claimed that she acted in self-defense, as reported by WXIX. Absent bond, she remained in custody.
The case files showed that Norton and Fletcher had been feuding for some time. In May, Norton allegedly pointed a gun at Fletcher and threatened to shoot her, according to a complaint filed in Hamilton County Municipal Court, which WKRC reports. September was the scheduled court date for both women’s appearance in that matter.
