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Re: 14 Year-Old Boy Shoots Armed Intruder
PHOENIX (AP) — A 14-year-old boy shot and nearly killed an intruder who broke into his Phoenix home and pulled a gun on him while he was watching his three younger siblings, police said Saturday.
The teen and his siblings, ages 8, 10 and 12, were at home alone when a woman rang the doorbell Friday afternoon, Phoenix police Officer James Holmes said.
The teen didn't open the door because he didn't recognize the woman.
Soon after, the teen heard a loud bang on the door, rushed his siblings upstairs and got a handgun from his parent's bedroom.
When he got to the top of the stairs, he saw a man break through the front door and point a gun at him.
The boy shot the 37-year-old man, who was taken to a hospital in extremely critical condition and underwent surgery. The man was upgraded to critical condition and is expected to survive and be booked into jail within the week on counts of aggravated assault and burglary, Holmes said.
He said the suspect did not get a shot off. He declined to release his name until he is booked into jail.
The woman who rang the home's doorbell got away.
Holmes hailed the teen's actions and his parents for teaching the kids to never open the door to strangers.
"The police and indeed our community does not ever want to see a situation where a teenager of that age has to take a weapon to protect his family ... but this young man did exactly what he should have done," he said. "I'm not sure he gave full thought about what he had to do. He just acted."
Holmes said that the gun the teen grabbed was his father's, but did not know whether the boy had been trained to use it.
He said the family, whose names were not released, is declining to speak to reporters about the ordeal, saying that they "are all pretty traumatized."
"The dad was pretty much out of his mind with distress, officers couldn't even talk to him," Holmes said. "It's going to take them a while to recover mentally."
He said police don't yet know what the suspect's intentions were and that will be one of the first questions they ask him when he is well enough to talk.
"This was mid-block in a neighborhood, at 4:30 in the afternoon in summertime and children are there," he said. "They just took a heck of a gamble for this particular house, and we've got to try to figure out why."
Holmes added that the family is lucky that the teen acted so swiftly and effectively.
"As ugly as this is, and as much as this family is going through, we don't have injured children on our hands," he said.
Wow.
Re: 14 Year-Old Boy Shoots Armed Intruder
Good boy. Glad to see there's still lawmen out West.
I hope the kid is alright, but the fact his siblings are okay is even more important.
I hope my kid has that much sense, and self-protect honor for his loved ones at that age.
Re: 14 Year-Old Boy Shoots Armed Intruder
That's why I hope a shrink simplifies him for it. He threatened you, you shot him, that's it. Don't overthink it, don't double guess it.
His father being an emotional wreck over it IS NOT GONNA HELP AT ALL.
Kids are gonna base their reactions on their parents. The more his dad freaks about it, the more the kid is gonna obsess on it. The more it's gonna consume him.
- Intercourse
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- monkeychow
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Re: 14 Year-Old Boy Shoots Armed Intruder
This kid was 100% justified in doing what he did....
However in the scheme of things I do question the wisdom of having a firearm with ammo in a location where a 14 year old can access it without supervision....
It's great that this kid put some home invading skum in their place...but some other kid might take that gun and kill the little sister when she annoys him or blow his face off by accident or something....
Re: 14 Year-Old Boy Shoots Armed Intruder
That's one thing about Europe I don't like. They seem to be the exact opposite of the problem.
People shouldn't be gun nuts. I've been around them, and they are a joke.
At the same time people shouldn't be so terrified over them, to villianize them without cause. It'd be like taking steak knifes away because they can kill a man.
Even in America, we wake up everyday and can walk the streets without guns or a fear of getting shot. It's really not the big deal it's made out to be.
