Or, as the police department put it, “She was able to use that gun to defend herself, and fired one shot which resulted in the death of that intruder.”
She was able to call the police during the assault and before firing, so a 911 dispatcher heard the fight and resulting use of deadly force, bolstering the woman’s depiction of events and self defense claim, with the police department saying that, based on a preliminary report, it looks like a clear case of self-defense and that the woman had legally obtained the firearm.
The man who broke into the house and assaulted the woman, 26-year-old Justin William Wright, was her neighbor, making the attack all the more shocking.
Watch the police talk about the incident and issue an awesome statement on self-defense here:
That police response, one which is very fair and doesn’t attack the woman for using deadly force and terminating the threat, could serve as a warning to other potential criminals out there: if you assault someone in Florida and they shoot you; the police aren’t gonna be on your side.
That epic response is similar to that given by another Florida police department after a self-defense shooting, albeit one in which the criminal wasn’t shot dead because the law-abiding citizen missed. Speaking on that, the sheriff said:
“If someone breaks unto your house you are more than welcome to shoot them in Santa Rosa County. We prefer that you do, actually.”
“You’re not in trouble. Come see us. We have a gun safety class we put on every other Saturday. If you take that you’ll shoot a lot better and hopefully you’ll save taxpayers money.”
Adding to that, he also said: “If somebody breaks in your house in Santa Rosa County, and you shoot and kill ’em, the chances of them reoffending after that are zero—and we like those odds. In Santa Rosa County, if you break into a house, you roll the dice.”
