A mother of two in Milwaukee, Wisconsin says she was forced to shoot and kill an intruder on Monday morning after he broke into her home while she and her children were inside. The woman, who spoke to WTMJ in Milwaukee while requesting anonymity, says she was in the shower when she heard her two kids, aged 14 and 12, start screaming.

Without hesitation, she raced to her bedroom, grabbed her gun, and ran into the hallway to face down the intruder, she said.

“It all happened so fast — an adrenaline rush,” she said.

The man, she said, was already being attacked by her two pit bulls, but she shot him multiple times because “he wouldn’t stop coming.”

A neighbor called her a “hero.”

The mother said the intruder appeared to be in his late 30s and was acting erratically.

Milwaukee Police have not identified the man. They arrested the woman but released her several hours later after questioning.

The intruder died from his injuries at the scene, and while the woman was initially arrested so far she’s not been charged with any crime. Police say they’ll refer the case to the local prosecutor’s office, but if the situation unfolded the way she described then this should be covered under the state’s Castle Doctrine, which requires a “presumption of immunity in civil and criminal actions to individuals who use deadly force in self-defense against persons unlawfully or forcibly entering their home, motor vehicle, or place of business” while also prohibiting “consideration of whether the actor had an opportunity to flee or retreat before he or she used force.”

According to the armed mom, she’s actually owned a firearm for several years, though this is the first time she’s ever had to use it to defend herself or her children.

The mother bought the gun ten years ago, she said, after discovering a man sleeping under her son’s bed. She said she hoped she’d never need to use it.

“I knew I’d be able to do it [shoot the intruder],” she said. “To protect my kids.”

I don’t know any gun owners who are hoping to become the victim of a violent crime so that they get to use their firearm to protect their life, no matter how many times gun control activists claim that law-abiding gun owners are just vigilantes-in-waiting or wannabe cops eager to “take the law into their own hands.” I own a fire extinguisher in my kitchen, but that doesn’t mean I want to be a firefighter or that I’m rooting for a grease fire every time someone in my house turns on the stove. I have homeowners insurance too, but I’m not keeping my fingers crossed that a tree falls on my house during a summer storm so I can see how well that policy works.

Owning a firearm for self-defense doesn’t mean you’re hoping to have to ever put it to use. It just means that you’re aware of the possibility that you could become the victim of violent crime whether you like it or not, and you don’t want to be defenseless if that ever happens.