Yoshihiro Hattori was a 16-year-old Japanese exchange student living in Baton Rouge in the fall of 1992. On the evening of October 17, 1992, Hattori and his host brother, Webb Haymaker, went to what they thought was a Halloween party. Dressed in costume, they knocked at the wrong house. The homeowners, Rodney and Bonnie Peairs, were startled; Rodney Peairs fetched a .44 Magnum and, from about five feet away, fired one shot that struck Hattori in the chest. The bullet pierced his left lung and Hattori died in an ambulance minutes later.

Police initially did not charge Peairs, but after protests from the Japanese consulate and the governor of Louisiana he was charged with manslaughter. At trial his defense cited fear for his life and the castle doctrine; a jury acquitted him in May 1993 after just over three hours of deliberation. In a subsequent civil trial Peairs was found liable for wrongful death, the court finding his use of deadly force unreasonable and awarding Hattori’s parents $650,000 in damages.

What details about that October night or the aftermath might someone who knew the area or the people involved be able to add?