“I hate to see it happened, but that’s what happens when you go into people’s home trying to take their stuff,” Julius Radcliff told Fox 59 News.
Radcliff is the neighbor of a young mother who fatally shot an intruder to defend her children on Wednesday. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department reports the mother heard someone breaking into her apartment—and, when investigating, came face to face with a strange man holding a gun. However, the mother was also carrying a firearm, and she fired first.
The suspect, 19-year-old Michael Hawkins, was struck fatally in the apartment doorway. The shooting is the second in two days where an Indianapolis parent was forced to fire in self-defense: On Tuesday, a father also killed an invader. The mother and children were unharmed, and neighbors are hoping this means criminals will reconsider a break-in. “You have to defend yourself,” said Janice Taylor. “We have laws for that.”
