Woman shoots home invader with gun son gave her week before

Columbus media are reporting on a home invasion that ended when a woman whose son had given her a gun only last week was able to defend herself.

From WBNS (CBS Columbus):

Columbus Police at the scene tell 10TV a widow heard someone breaking in, grabbed her gun and shot the intruder.

“She was armed and apparently fired multiple shots at him,” said Sgt. Dave Sicilia.

The woman’s son says he bought the gun for her a week ago to keep her safe now that she is living alone, but he never thought she would actually have to use it.

Police believe the suspect also broke into neighboring homes.

According to the article, the home invasion suspect was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries. He was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

Columbus Police have identified that burglary suspect as 28-year-old Chirstopher Lee Willis.

From the Columbus Dispatch:

Columbus police were called just after 5 a.m. yesterday by a resident of the 100 block of N. Guilford Avenue. The caller said a man had broken into his house through the back door and escaped out a second-floor window. The tracks the man left on the short porch roof were still visible yesterday.

“Some guy that ran through our back door ran out through the top window, jumped off the roof and ran into the neighbor lady’s house, and she shot him,” the caller yelled to the dispatcher.

Willis, who didn’t take anything from the first house, ran across the street and onto the front porch of a house across the street, where he broke a window and fell into the house, said Sgt. David Sicilian, supervisor of the Columbus police third-shift homicide squad.

That’s when the woman inside shot him, Sicilian said.

Under Ohio's Castle Doctrine law, if someone unlawfully enters or attempts to enter an occupied home or temporary habitation, or occupied car, citizens have an initial presumption that they may act in self defense, and will not be second-guessed by the State.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary, BFA PAC Vice Chairman, and an NRA-certified firearms instructor. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website.