Baby Sitter, 14, shoots Armed intruder

[Sonny]

A 14-year-old boy shot and almost killed an intruder who broke into his house and pulled a gun on him while he was babysitting his younger siblings on Friday.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...=feeds-newsxml

The teenager and his three siblings, aged 8, 10 and 12, were alone at their Phoenix, Arizona, home when a woman the children didn't recognise rang the doorbell at around 4.30pm.

Having been taught not to open the door to strangers, the kids, who have not been named, didn't answer but after they heard a loud bang on the door, the boy rushed his siblings upstairs and grabbed a handgun from his parent's bedroom.

As he got to the top of the stairs, he saw a man breaking in through the front door holding a rifle, which he proceeded to point at the boy.

The teenager shot the 37-year-old intruder, then the four children ran to a neighbour's home where they called police and their father.

The man, who didn't get a shot off, was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center where he underwent surgery.

He remains in critical condition but is expected to survive and be booked into jail within the week, at which point his name will be released.

Police Officer James Holmes said the intruder would face aggravated assault and burglary charges.

The woman who rang the home's doorbell got away, police said.

Mr Holmes said the teenager had been very brave and praised his parents for teaching the children not to 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,' Mr Holmes said.
'But this young man did exactly what he should have done. I'm not sure he gave full thought about what he had to do. He just acted.'

The gun the teen grabbed was his father's but Mr Holmes did not know whether he had been trained to use it.

The family did not want to be interviewed but they were said to be 'pretty traumatized' by the incident.

'The dad was pretty much out of his mind with distress, officers couldn't even talk to him,' Mr Holmes said.

'It's going to take them a while to recover mentally.'
He said police didn't know whether the children were targeted specifically or the house was picked at random. They also believe there may be other accomplices.

Mr Holmes said officers would quiz the intruder of his motives when he was 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.'

But Mr Holmes said the family was lucky none of the children were harmed.

'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.

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[CanadaSue]

Good boy!

[Brihard]

Right on. Good lad!

[CanadaSue]

Added to what I wrote. He acted as calmly & rationally as I would hope in such a situation. When matters escalated beyond the kids not answering the door - he got the younger ones upstairs. He was smart not to head out back - he hadn't/couldn't see the nature of the threat but clearly if this escalated beyond knocking - something was drastically wrong.

Trained or not to use the handgun? I suspect he had some knowledge. He didn't hesitate but got off a shot as soon as a rifle was pointed at him. He was shooting down the stairs, was 14 & no doubt under a lot of stress & fear. He hit his target - not easy to do without any training & tough enough to do with only a little practice. Hand guns aren't easy or intuitive for most.

I'll bet the family is distressed - even a 'righteous shoot' is tough to deal with & this boy is 14. As a parent, I'd be beside myself with a full range of negative emotions running through me & a million 'what ifs'.

And yeah, why that house, that time of day. It may be it's often empty or appears to be - if it was scoped out. More than one perp suggests more than a random choice - granted SUGGESTS. What do I know? I don't break into homes.

[Mama Alanna]

No cars in the driveway, perhaps. The knocking was to find out if anyone was home?

Or perhaps someone had the wrong address and they thought that they were breaking into a rival drug dealer or something?

[Twoolf]

I don't even know the kid and I'm so proud of him. Kid deserves a medal.