Why We Carry: Man Shot And Killed After Shooting Ex-Girlfriend Dead In Parking Lot

LAKELAND, FLORIDA — A woman is dead after police say her ex-boyfriend broke into her apartment, and then after an altercation, shot her in the parking lot.

Police were responding to the scene during the chaos, but were too late to save the woman’s life.

When they arrived, they found Howayne T. Gayle, 35, pointing a gun at a 37-year-old woman in the parking lot. The two had recently broken up and he had broken into her condo.

When the woman, whose name was not released, saw the officers, she started toward them. Gayle shot her, police said. Officer Brent Behrens immediately shot Gayle, who died at the scene. The woman was taken to the hospital, where she died later Sunday.

via wptv.com

Two lives lost, all because Gayle couldn’t handle rejection. The unidentified woman apparently had no way to defend herself against her attacker, and in her last moments, was hoping that the responding officers would be able to help her.

That’s a dark paragraph above, and a sad one indeed. One of the reasons why Concealed Nation exists is to get people thinking about their own personal safety, and what steps they can take to help them not be a victim.

It’s truly heartbreaking to hear about these stories, but out of the darkness, someone is going to take action to help defend themselves, so that they will less likely become a statistic.