He was 17. She said he was in the house uninvited. He reached for something. Do I celebrate it? No. One dead and the other two in therapy for a long time does not sound like a win. Would I pull the trigger? I cannot know. In Texas, this is likely an open and shut case. I know of at least one woman here in Tennessee who got away with murdering her husband by making up an abuse charge after the fact. The father would not be so fortunate here.
You reminded me of a rather "Mature" lady I worked with in Austin, TX. She had quit her Social Worker job several months earlier after having to shoot one of her former subjects. She explained to us that she had to ambush him in her kitchen. She had no proof of who was doing it, but she seemed to know. She had 4 break-ins in two weeks, all at night, all while she was home in bed. There was nothing stolen, just the back door kicked in. She thinks the guy was trying to scare her (which was working quite well). Each time the police would come, do the report and tell her to keep her doors locked and recommended she get a gun. She never saw the man but was sure of who it was. She had no proof so the LEO never questioned the parolee (former subject). Her neighbor was LEO and let her barrow his .44 mag.
She said she waited up in the kitchen for two nights in a row before the perp again kicked in the back door. She said she closed her eyes and pulled the trigger. How she explained what happened next had us in stitches.
Apparently she hit the perp in the meaty part of the groin and he went down. But the bang was so loud she was stunned, confused and her ears were ringing. She had dropped the gun and was crawling around looking for it in the dark. She found it, sat up under the kitchen table, cocked it and aimed at the realing body near here back door. She fired another shot (miss) and again had to go looking for the gun. ROFLMAO.
Police showed up pretty quickly. The perp went to the hospital for some surgery. The ERT put a bandaid on the cut and bump on her forehead (.44 kicks like a mule). His wound will never fully heal and apparently there are no new children in his future. The police congratulated her, took her statement, returned the weapon to the neighbor and helped her get her door back in place before leaving her house where she finally got to sleep for a while.
After this incident, she went and bought a more suitable self defense weapon.