“I knew the cops would get there quickly, but maybe not get there quickly enough, and I wanted to be able to defend us.”

The wife of a James City County police officer had just put her two-year-old daughter to bed and was settling down to watch television when a man began banging on her doors and windows, trying to get in. Trained by her husband in self-defense, she dialed 911, grabbed her handgun, and took a defensive position.

When the man broke a window and entered the home, she was ready.

“I mean, he was coming at me, and I think he was yelling, but you know, it’s one of those things were it was so fast, I don’t know, but all I knew is he was coming at me and I knew if he got past me, my daughter was in the back room,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified.

The preliminary police investigation revealed a 25-year-old man had broken a window and entered the home. A woman and her 2-year-old daughter were home at the time of the incident, and at some point, the female shot the suspect.

The suspect was taken to an area hospital with possible life-threatening injuries. The woman and her daughter were not injured.

The woman said she didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger, thanks to trips to the gun range with her husband. He is a James City County police officer, who was on duty last night when the man tried breaking in.

“Had I not been able to protect myself with the gun, I don’t know what he would have done to me,” she said. “I don’t know what he would have done to my daughter, there’s no telling, but I’ll never have to find out because I stopped the situation.”

The daughter woke up during the incident, and a Newport News police officer entered her room and consoled her, keeping her company while the suspect was taken out by EMS and officers conducted their investigation. Thankfully, she didn’t see any of the crime as it took place or it’s aftermath. I suspect that the attempt to shield children from violence as much as possible is far more common than any of us know; I do know that many law enforcement officers carry teddy bears or other stuffed animals in their patrol vehicles to give to children so that they have something to hold on to during traumatic incidents.

There is going to be a formal investigation as is typically the case in this sort of situation, but it appears to be a textbook case of armed self-defense that may have saved two lives.