18-Year-Old Mother Kills Home Intruder to Protect Her Baby
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Photo: alancleaver_2000/Creative Commons
Picture it: your husband died on Christmas Day following a battle with cancer, two of your dogs have turned up dead under suspicious circumstances and you've recently turned a strange man away at your front door. It sounds hard to top the trauma that was the last few weeks of 18-year-old Sarah McKinley's life...hard, but not impossible.
The Oklahoma resident and her 3-month-old son were home alone on New Years Eve when the previously mentioned "strange man," since identified as 24-year-old Justin Martin, showed back up on McKinley's front stoop. This time, he wasn't alone - he had company in the form of a male friend and a 12-inch hunting knife.
The teen mom showed rare composure when she first barricaded the front door with a couch, then picked up a pistol and a 12-gauge shotgun. She called 911 and uttered a statement I'm sure she'd hoped never to say - "Is it OK to shoot him if he comes in the door?"
The dispatcher told her to do whatever she had to in order to protect her tiny family...so she did. Martin died when she shot him in the chest immediately after he broke down the door. Now, the world is abuzz with the courageous act of a woman barely old enough to vote, who pulled out all the stops to protect her child and herself. As it turns out, the law is 100% on her side, so she doesn't have to worry about any legal repercussions.
McKinley's situation begs the question: Could you do what it takes to protect your family in a clutch? The answer might seem obvious, but no one ever knows how they would react in such a situation. If nothing else, her clearheaded reaction (although I'm sure it's a giant blur to her now) is a lesson in emergency preparedness. I certainly hope that she has a support system in place to help her cope with the multiple traumas she's suffered in recent weeks. Most 18-year-olds would have cracked under the pressure already. Let's hope she can pull through these terrible experiences with continued strength.
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