BRANDON, FLORIDA — A woman and a man were inside their apartment when a known man came to the door and knocked. Going to check, the woman couldn’t make out who was outside after cracking the door open. The man started pushing the door open, forcing his way inside.
Keep in mind that this incident happened around 4:30 in the morning.
Once the man was inside, an argument took place between himself and the woman. At some point, the man got into an argument with the man who was already inside the apartment with the woman. The argument escalated to the intruder shooting the other man in his lower body.
In fear for her life, officials say the woman went back into a bedroom and got a gun. She returned to the living room area, where another argument took place and shortly afterward there was an exchange of gunfire between the intruder and the woman.
via patch.com
The woman ended up shooting the man, who died at the scene. She was not injured.
There are a few topics of discussion here, and we’ll start with this: Don’t open your door, especially at 4:30 am, when you don’t know who is on the other side. Having a camera outside, or utlizing a peephole is extremely beneficial to determine who is outside your home. Cracking the door open, as this woman did, opens up possibilities that give the person on the other side an advantage.
Second, we see home invasions all the time, and always discuss the importance of having your firearm close by. So close, in fact, that the best place is on your person. Since this was early morning, there’s a good chance that the people inside the apartment were sleeping, so they weren’t in any shape to carry their firearm. However, bringing on with you when checking to see who is knocking at your door is never a bad idea.
In this case, the woman needed to retreat back to the bedroom in order to gain access to her firearm, which could have been bad if the intruder decided to pull the trigger again, but this time in her direction.
There are always uncertanties when someone forces their way into your home, so being prepared for such an event in advance is important.
Get some cameras, have a way to determine who is outside, and keep your firearm(s) close by for an instance such as this.
“We believe the decedent and woman involved in this shooting knew each other,” said Sheriff Chad Chronister in a news release. “We are still investigating the events that led up to this incident, however, it does appear domestic in nature.”
The condition of the other man was not immediately clear.
