A homeowner in Chesnee, South Carolina shot and killed 19-year-old Xavier Felix Rivera Goucher after he forced open a back door around 2 a.m. The Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office does not expect the homeowner to face charges, citing self-defense. Investigators confirmed Goucher was unknown to the occupants.
The sheriff’s office stated that breaking into a residence carries life-threatening risk. The homeowner has not been publicly identified, and while no formal charging decision has been made, prosecutors will make the final determination. The investigation remains ongoing.
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CHESNEE, SC — A homeowner shot and killed a 19-year-old stranger who broke in through a back door around 2 a.m. Sunday, and the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office says it does not believe the homeowner will face charges, citing self-defense.
Deputies responded to a reported shooting at a home on Cherokee Circle in Chesnee and found one person dead inside, later identified as Xavier Felix Rivera Goucher, 19, after he was shot several times by the homeowner, one of two people inside the house at the time, as reported by WYFF.
Investigators say Rivera Goucher did not know either of the two people inside and had broken in through a back door before he was shot and killed.
Strip that down to what the two people in that house actually had to work with. Two in the morning. A back door coming open. A stranger in the room. No name, no warning, no way to ask what he wanted. The homeowner fired. Deputies say the intruder was hit several times and died inside the house.
The message from the sheriff’s office in the report was blunt. “If you make the decision that you are going to break into somebody’s residence, this is what can happen.” Authorities also said an incident like this is incredibly rare for Chesnee and for Spartanburg County as a whole, which tracks with what neighbors said. “It’s hard to believe. I mean, it’s just been a quiet community,” Lester Fowler told WYFF.
Fowler put his finger on the part nobody rehearses well. “That’s a hard thing to imagine, especially in the moment when you’re caught off guard,” he said. That is the whole argument for having a plan before you need one. Where the firearm is, whether it is on you or across the house, who calls 911, and what you do while you wait are all decisions better made on a Tuesday afternoon than at 2 a.m. with a stranger already inside.
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The homeowner has not been publicly identified. The investigation is active and ongoing, and while the sheriff’s office says it does not expect charges, no formal charging decision has been announced. Prosecutors make that final call.
A quiet street, a forced back door, and two people who had seconds to decide what a stranger in their house at 2 a.m. intended.
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