The 911 call came in around 2 a.m., when a panicked woman said a man was trying to break into her Poulsbo, Wash., home. Officers quickly arrived to find the suspected burglar lying critically wounded outside the house. Investigators discovered the woman had warned the intruder several times, but he kept approaching—so she had to shoot.
Kitsap County Det. Lt. Earl Smith told KOMO 4 News, “Definitely scary for this lady who’s home alone in the middle of the night and you’ve got somebody breaking into your home. And she did what she thought she had to do.”
The woman was home alone when she heard the noise and retrieved her gun, then found the 28-year-old suspect trying to enter the residence. After the warnings, she shot at the intruder, leaving a bullet hole in a window near the front door. The suspect was taken to a hospital in critical condition, but is expected to survive.
