A Florida woman shot and killed a man who returned to her home after an argument early Saturday and tried to use a band of iron to make his way inside, authorities said.
The shooting happened just after 6 a.m. in an ununited area of Auburndale in Polk County, Sheriff Grady Judd said at a news conference. Judd said it turned out that the “shooter was perfectly legal to defend her house against a burglar.”
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“You have the right to protect yourself in your home and be free from burglars, armed burglars, and surely he was armed with a band of iron and tried to get through the window,” Judd said. “She stopped him. She stopped him permanently.”
The homeowner and the suspect were known to each other, the sheriff said. They had gone to a swimming pool in Lakeland the night before with another man and a woman who was the suspect’s live-in girlfriend. The group of four returned to the woman’s house at 4 o’clock in the afternoon after she had stopped at a liquor store for a bottle of whiskey.
The suspect and his girlfriend ran into a “heated argument” at 6 p.m., and the two men left the house, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. The two women stayed at the house.
The suspect drove to the end of the street with his friend before deciding to turn around to get his girlfriend to go home with him, Judd said. The suspect slammed and kicked up the front door, demanding to see his girlfriend.
The other man tried to get the suspect away, but the suspect grabbed a tire iron from his car and hit a window of the house. The suspect shouted and threatened to kill the two women, the sheriff’s office said.
Sheriff Grady Judd said the woman appeared to be within her legal rights to shoot the man who used a bundle of iron to break into her home.
(Sheriff’s Office of Polk County)
The woman who owned the house got a gun and shot at the suspect, who died instantly at the scene, Judd said.
“This is another incident where you just have to get away,” Judd said. ‘But when you came back to the house that is not your house, and you tried to break in to get a girlfriend who did not want to be with you, and you were shot and killed while breaking into the house with a tires iron, that was a bad choice. And it’s the last bad choice he’s going to make. ”
Judd said the bureau of medical investigators will determine if the suspect was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The names of those involved have not been released.
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The sheriff’s office is still investigating the incident.
