On Friday, January 6, 2013 in Loganville, Georgia, a town of 11,000 30 miles east of Atlanta, Melinda Herman was at home watching her 9-year-old twins, and working in her second-story office. At one o'clock that afternoon, Melinda looked out a window and saw a man she didn't recognize pull up in front of her upper-middle-class suburban home. The man, later identified as 32-year-old Paul Ali Slater, had been released from jail in August after serving six months for simple battery and three counts of probation violation. Since 2008, this thief and burglar had been arrested seven times.
Melinda watched the man approach the house. He knocked on the front door, and when she didn't answer, he laid on the doorbell. Frightened, Melinda called her husband Donnie at work. (In late December, Donne had taken his wife to a shooting range where she had learned how to fire a .38-caliber revolver.) Donnie told Melinda to take possession of the firearm, then hide in the attic with the children. He called 911.
When Melinda looked out the window again, she saw the man coming toward the house with a crowbar in his hand. As Slater used the tool to break into the Herman home, Melinda and the twins hid in a crawlspace closet.
From inside the attic closet, Melinda could hear the burglar rummaging through the family's belongings. She became extremely alarmed when she heard the intruder enter the attic. Suddenly the closet door opened, and there he was, standing a foot from her and the children. Melinda raised the six-shot revolver and fired all of its bullets. Five of the slugs hit Slater in the face and neck. Four of these bullets passed through his body.
The shot intruder fell face-down on the attic floor. As the blood started leaking from his bullet-ridden body, he begged Melinda, who was still pulling the trigger of her empty gun, to stop shooting. Melinda and the children stepped over the home invader's body, and ran out of the house. As they took refuge in a neighbor's place, Slater managed to get to his feet and stumble out of the dwelling. He made his way to the SUV, but a few houses down the street, ran the vehicle into a tree.
The bloodied and badly wounded burglar crawled out of his SUV and collapsed on someone's driveway. That's where deputies from the Walton County Sheriff's Office found him. "Help me," he cried. "I'm close to dying."
Emergency personnel rushed the shot intruder to the Gwinnet Medical Center where he was placed on a ventilator. He is expected to survive his gunshot wounds. He's lucky, few people would survive five .38-caliber slugs fired into them at close range. No one will ever know what would have happened to Melinda Herman and her two children had she not emptied her gun on this home invader.
The local prosecutor charged Paul Ali Slater with burglary and other related offenses. Eventually he will be moved from his hospital bed to a jail cot, and then to a prison cell. In time, this man will be back out on the street, and in all probability, unless he is confined to a wheelchair, will continue breaking into homes.
Melinda watched the man approach the house. He knocked on the front door, and when she didn't answer, he laid on the doorbell. Frightened, Melinda called her husband Donnie at work. (In late December, Donne had taken his wife to a shooting range where she had learned how to fire a .38-caliber revolver.) Donnie told Melinda to take possession of the firearm, then hide in the attic with the children. He called 911.
When Melinda looked out the window again, she saw the man coming toward the house with a crowbar in his hand. As Slater used the tool to break into the Herman home, Melinda and the twins hid in a crawlspace closet.
From inside the attic closet, Melinda could hear the burglar rummaging through the family's belongings. She became extremely alarmed when she heard the intruder enter the attic. Suddenly the closet door opened, and there he was, standing a foot from her and the children. Melinda raised the six-shot revolver and fired all of its bullets. Five of the slugs hit Slater in the face and neck. Four of these bullets passed through his body.
The shot intruder fell face-down on the attic floor. As the blood started leaking from his bullet-ridden body, he begged Melinda, who was still pulling the trigger of her empty gun, to stop shooting. Melinda and the children stepped over the home invader's body, and ran out of the house. As they took refuge in a neighbor's place, Slater managed to get to his feet and stumble out of the dwelling. He made his way to the SUV, but a few houses down the street, ran the vehicle into a tree.
The bloodied and badly wounded burglar crawled out of his SUV and collapsed on someone's driveway. That's where deputies from the Walton County Sheriff's Office found him. "Help me," he cried. "I'm close to dying."
Emergency personnel rushed the shot intruder to the Gwinnet Medical Center where he was placed on a ventilator. He is expected to survive his gunshot wounds. He's lucky, few people would survive five .38-caliber slugs fired into them at close range. No one will ever know what would have happened to Melinda Herman and her two children had she not emptied her gun on this home invader.
The local prosecutor charged Paul Ali Slater with burglary and other related offenses. Eventually he will be moved from his hospital bed to a jail cot, and then to a prison cell. In time, this man will be back out on the street, and in all probability, unless he is confined to a wheelchair, will continue breaking into homes.
Too bad she missed with one bullet, Slater might have gone to the morgue then instead of the hospital.
ReplyDeleteYes much like 20 innocent children....
DeleteTwenty? NO! There were 2 innocent children and their innocent Mother....ALL SAVED BY HER GUN. The Scumbag had a crowbar and would have been in control of them if the LAW ABIDING CITIZEN didn't protect her family. "Much like" thousands of other Victims who saved themselves from scumbags that were recyled through the liberal justice system
DeleteToo bad she didn't send him to the morgue. Animals like this criminal never stop committing crimes until they are killed.
ReplyDelete