Salinas police say 29-year-old Orion Christopher Moore was at the Pilot Truck Stop gas station on Friday when an unidentified homeless man offered to wash Moore's windows.

Moore declined the offer, but the homeless man, who police say was about 60 years old, reportedly began washing the windshield anyway. Police say Moore pushed the man away from his car, causing him to fall and hit his head on the pavement. The man died at Natividad Medical Center.

Moore is being held at the county jail.

Huh? Murder? First, giving police the benefit of the doubt, there may be more to the story than what we read in this brief report. If there is not, though, Moore should not have been arrested at all and most certainly should not have been charged with murder.

There are several mental state alternatives to the crime of murder. One is specific intent to kill. There is no indication of that in the story. The other is an act of extreme recklessness, such as shooting the windows out of occupied buildings. Intent to kill a person inside is not required; it is enough that there is a known, strong possibility, and the perpetrator recklessly commits the act anyway. There is no indication of anything close to that in this story. A third guilty mental state is killing a person in the course of a felony, such as rape or robbery, but again there is no indication of that here.

Killing a person accidently in the course of an illegal or negligent act can be involuntary manslaughter. If they were going to charge Moore with anything, that would be the charge.

But why charge him with anything at all? Simply pushing a person is nondeadly force. True, even "nondeadly" force can result in a person's death under highly unusual circumstances, but that unforeseen consequence does not change the legality of the act. Nondeadly force is an appropriate and legal response to a trespass, which the decedent clearly committed. There is nothing wrong, much less illegal, about using such mild force in this circumstance. It is unfortunate that this person's annoying and illegal tactics resulted in his death, but he was the one who set the wheels in motion, not Moore.