A Florida drug addict high on the street drug “Molly” forced his way into a home and threatened to kill the home owner early Wednesday morning. The home owner, a retired law enforcement officer, issued a terse, single-note response. Boom.

Officers were called to the 2600 block of Thomasville Road around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday after receiving multiple calls about someone trying to break into homes in the area.

The homeowner, a retired law enforcement officer who did not wish to be identified, told WCTV that he and his wife awoke to a loud crashing sound.

When he opened the bedroom door, 27-year-old Jarod Clemons was in the house and repeatedly saying “I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill you,” according to the homeowners.

That’s when he fired one shot that hit the Clemons in the chest.

The home shows visible signs of a confrontation, the glass door is completely shattered and there are dirt markings in the doorway. Clemons threw a 50 pound planter trough the glass front door.

Neighbors told WCTV they saw a man jumping fences and going door to door, banging on them and trying to break into homes.

Mr. Clemons had taken the drug earlier in the evening and had a series of psychotic breaks that saw him flee his girlfriend’s car, then go to a police station to try to get help, and them flee the ambulance that the police called after first assaulting an EMT. It was after escaping the ambulance that Clemons started banging on the doors of homes threatening people, before finally breaking into the home of the retired officer and collecting a single well-aimed shot.

It’s sad home many of the defensive gun uses (DGUs) we cover come as a result of drug abuse. We’ve covered several home invasions so far this year where someone attacked residents while high on drugs. The 2013 Gardena police shooting we covered yesterday was the result of a man who was high on meth and alcohol interjecting himself into a police stop of two other men and acting erratically. We’ve covered many defensive gun uses where the criminals were committing crimes so that they could steal money or property to use to finance their next fix.

This abuser crime doesn’t even scratch the surface of the larger issue of the thug culture in this country that is financed primarily through the trafficking of illegal drugs, and which spurs so much of the nation’s gang violence.

Addicts can be very, very dangerous people.

The homeowner in this situation could only take Jarod Clemons at face value when he threw a 50-lbs planter through their front door and stormed into their home, screaming that he was going to kill them.

The retired officer may have taken the shot, but Jared Clemons killed himself.