56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audio
 

Wow. Poor lady! listen to the live audio of the 911 call here: http://www.newsok.com/multimedia/video/54313835001

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

Wild. I wonder if he thought that was his house, but was to drunk to realize it wasn't... he was calling for Pat?

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

I wept for her situation at the end. It was a terrible situation to be put in and no matter how warranted one may feel their actions are there is still the terrible feeling that you have taken a human life.

On another note... I feel that it was TERRIBLY irresponsible to post this audio with her address, where she hides her key to the house, her sons name & phone number as well as where her husbands work place still intact.

That data should have been removed from the audio.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

So sad.

Sounds like his daughter (?) was passed out in a vehicle in a ditch in the road, he was trying to get help, while being in a drunken stupor. It's easy to second-guess the frightened woman who was home alone, and say she should have shot at knee caps, etc... (my first reaction), but she has no idea what the circumstances are. This is a tragedy in many ways.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

Man that is tough. It seems that it took the officers a long time to respond considering the nature of the call. I wonder if they were in a very rural place.

I feel bad for the lady. I wonder, though, if it might have been a good idea to grab the shotgun and announce herself while he was still outside once she saw he was a drunk older man.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

Yeah... a warning shot would have been a good idea. Especially since she would not have to reload to get off another shot. But... I'm not second guessing her though. Hindsight is 20/20 and the heat of the moment is a tough place to make decisions like that. (Do I remember her saying early on that he had a gun? I'm not sure...)

From the call it seemed as though she may have been in a rural area. There is no way of knowing from the recording but it seemed that way.

She has goats and large dogs to guard them.
Her only neighbors were elderly (80 years or so old)
They sent the county deputy (that is often the case in unincorporated areas.)

Several things left that impression with me.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

Dude, a 56yr woman awakened by a man banging on her door and then busting through. She is not thinking anything about reasoning, she is trying to survive.

It's a major tragedy, but I don't know that I would have done different. You never know how you will react in those situations

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

Absolutely.

That is what I was saying.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

I'm not trying to fault her, I was just wondering what the pros and cons would have been for announcing to him that she was armed and on the phone with the police. Honestly she did not strike me as a frightened, rattled woman. She was remarkably level headed throughout. It was also not like she woke up and had a man standing over her and did not have time to react, think, or gain the upper hand. It may simply be different for me as a younger man and she as an older woman though.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

I completely agree.

That audio was heart breaking.

I do think that it might have been advisable to try to hide, to give the police more time to get there and deal with it, and/or to announce loudly that she had a gun and would shoot if he came on in. Our pastor's son frightened an intruder away by letting him know he had a gun....it seems like the police or the dispatcher might have suggested something of that sort.

:(

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

let me add the 911 operator advised her that she has a right to protect her property. When the lady said she's going to have to kill/shoot the guy operator responded with i understand. Heaing this may give a person the feeling it's what she has to do.

There's some other options I could think of being an arm chair QB at this point, but lady was within her right to shoot the guy.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

Absolutely. Until it happens to you, you really don't know what you will do--you can only hope that you'll react in the best way possible.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

Yep, and whether one agrees are not, she was lawfully right to shoot the guy.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

I'm sure there's some liberal antigun tree huggin frog kissers out there that will condemn her.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

There are some "liberal antigun tree huggin frog kissers" HERE who will condemn her.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

who?

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

Benny Casa comes to mind..some others too.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

"Frog kissers?"

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

I agree with the bolded above - however, I don't fault the original poster. The fault lies with whatever news agency got ahold of it and posted it - as well as the law enforcement agency that released it without removing that info from the audio.. JMHO

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

She was quite calm before he actually broke in -- and considering, it took him about 5-10 minutes of pounding on the door and yelling a name she didn't recognize.

I understand she was probably petrified. But she knew what was about to go down. The woman on the phone could have helped a bit more.

"I'm going to have to kill him if he comes in."
"I understand..."

Depending on her experience with guns, she could have shot his legs, fired a warning shot, caulked the gun... a number of things. She could evidently see the guy since he walked all around her wrap-around porch. She suspected him of being drunk even.

All hindsight. But all these facts make the story more tragic.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

Agreed!

However, there IS something about hearing the pump of a shotgun that would deter most sane and/or sober people when breaking and entering ...... It appears that this man was not sober and who know if he was sane....


This is a heartbreaking incident - I pray that the lady is able to deal with the certain aftermath and mental anguish that will haunt her. She seemed so "together" in the beginning, but was really distraught at what happened. May the Prince of Peace touch her mind and heart!

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

I'm not a tree-hugger, but you can say I'm not a huge fan of Wild West culture. Hiding and letting the man take what he needed would have been better. She had a gun, she was safe. Had he discovered her -- game over. The operator made the situation worse by approving her frightened prospect of "i'll have to kill him."

At the same time, I'm not condemning her. We are all just playing armchair QB on this. It's tragic... who knows how each of us would react. This story would have been better had there been no loss of life. The man was likely drunk driving, and trying to help his passed out daughter who was nearby in a car. He was frantic.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

Yes, her emotions afterward were heartbreaking. "Father, forgive me... forgive me, Father..."

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

She obviously was familiar enough with the shotgun to know that if she was forced to shoot - there wasn't going to be much chance of his survival (if at very close range)

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

The sad thing about wounding someone they come back and sue you and you lose! It is rediculous but the way it is.

I have not listened to the tape, but if he was drunk, then he could have been out of control. Folks on drugs and some are mean drunks you can't mess around with.

Taking a life I would think would be a tragic thing to deal with.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

I'd much rather someone sue me than me deal with the pain of taking their life when I didn't have to.

Yes, he was drunk. From her perspective, he appeared belligerent, but as it turns out he was likely only frantic, and trying to get help. I've read a few other news stories on this.

I feel for the homeowner... she has to live with replaying all the things she could have done differently.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

Imagine what the backlash would have been if the operator had tried to talk her out of shooting him, and the intruder had harmed the woman.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

True... with 20/20, and scrutiny, the woman had a good look at the man (and could have seen if he was armed), she recognized that he may be drunk. She has a shotgun. The likelihood of her being harmed in this situation is not great.

But yes, it's hard to see this as she saw it, since we have all the details.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

That is a huge assumption. Regardless if he had a weapon in hand or not, he could still have harmed her, even killed her with his bare hands. If he thought he was in his home and she was the intruder, he could have reacted differently, and felt he was defending his home, using whaterver was handy.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

I feel for the woman in this situation. All I was asking was whether it would have been good or bad to have said something while he was still outside unarmed and she was inside armed. If this were a case where she awoke to someone sneakily trying to break in, ramming a door, or climbing through a window, I say shoot first and shoot often. In this case he spent ten minutes knocking on various doors and windows and loudly calling for Pat. That would not strike me as the actions of a man initially looking to break-in.
She was reasonably calm and identified him as an older man while he was still outside. I'm just saying that in that situation I would probably have grabbed my gun and informed him that I was armed and the police were on the way and there was no Pat in my house.
But once again, I am allowing for the fact that I am a younger man and she is an older woman.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

All I'm saying is... she had a shotgun for crying out loud. The squeeze of a trigger gave her the power to be assured the likelihood of her injury to be minimal.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

TStew, that's where I was going with it as well.

And your last statement is true. Though she sounded calm, I'm sure she was frightened to be left alone at dark with a drunk stranger trying to force himself in her home.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

From what I understood of the call she did inform the intruder, when he started to break in and she put the phone down, that she had a gun and was on the phone with the police. He proceeded to break in with a patio chair and then the table. Those are the actions of a mad man and a few seconds of indecision could have caused her her life. Her son was a police officer and she knew quite a few of them asking for specific ones to come. I believe she had been trained in how to take care of herself in this type of situation. She had no desire to shoot the man and only did so when she felt she was left with no other choice.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

I listened to the point of the shooting, but didn't hear any of that. However, I could have missed it. Either way, I was not talking about the point when he actually entered the house but the ten minutes or so when he was locked outside, knocking, and calling for Pat.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

If I remember correctly the intruder was 53 years old.

He was a well known person to law enforcement.

He was a well known drug addict and alcoholic.

While he was breaking in this home, his sister was in his truck (about 1-2 miles) down the road drugged out of her mind.

The woman (victm) is familar with the police which possibly helped her remain calm. Her son is a policeman.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

I'm in agreement that she has the legal right to defend herself and her property, as noted earlier on the thread. I don't fault her at all for doing what she felt necessary to protect herself.

I didn't hear her announce to the man that she had a gun and would shoot.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

regardless of what one thinks should have been done, a citizen as the right to stand their ground and defend their property by all enemies, foreign and domestic. :)


I think I would have run out the front door or hid in a back room with gun pointed to door hoping sheriff would come before having to shoot, but I always don't think the ECU pirates shouldn't have run the ball on 4 and 1 after being stopped twice. ;) Easy to make judgements after the fact.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

I think she wanted to avoid confrontation she kept asking them to hurry. I believe everyone would handle the situation differently depending on their strengths and weaknesses. Coming from a woman's perspective their is no way I would have wanted to confront him, she was worried about him seeing her and had even turned off all the lights. At one point they asked her if their was a room she could lock herself in in the house. She said no she didn't feel comfortable in a small bathroom with a shotgun. I believe you are looking from a man's point of view which might have been a bit more rational. This man was pounding on all the doors and windows and was yelling, this can be pretty intimidating to a woman, where a man might feel more in control. Even though she was level headed she was probably trained on how to act, thinking beyond that might have been too much at the moment.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

I had to listen to that part over again, because it was confusing to me. I believe she relayed that to the operator, we couldn't hear her when she actually said it to the man, right before she actually shot him. I will have to listen again to be sure it was earlier today.

Re: 56yr Old Woman shoots and kills intruder. Audi
 

I listened to the whole 32 min. I didn't intend to listen that long. I think the police took way to long! I wish she would of just shot him in the leg , just wounded him. I don't fault her, I know she had to do what she had to do. It is clear on tape that she didn't want to kill him, but again the police took FOREVER!