Originally Posted by Intense1

The case you're writing about is that of Yoshihiro Hattori, who was shot by Rodney Pears (sp?) in the early 1990's. Yoshi was an exchange student and new to the US, and didn't speak very much English. He and a friend went out on Halloween looking for a party, and when they got lost, went to a house to ask for directions. Mr. Pears saw the two walking up to his house and called out for them to "Freeze", but Yoshi didn't understand that word, so he was shot.

Here is the Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshihiro_Hattori

Mr. Pears was arrested and brought up on charges, but was exonerated. It caused a great uproar in Japan, and I had to answer numerous questions, as I lived there at the time.