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. She was working in her second-floor 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 2012 after serving six months for simple battery and three counts of probation violation. Since 2008 this thief and burglar had been arrested seven times. He had six children.
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 Paul 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 Herman 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 the 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 Mr. 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 his car into a tree.
The bloodied and badly wounded burglar crawled out of his SUV and collapsed on a nearby driveway where deputies from the Walton County Sheriff's Office found him. "Help me," he cried. "I'm close to dying."
Emergency personnel rushed the wounded intruder to the Gwinnett Medical Center where he was placed on a ventilator.
The local prosecutor charged Paul Ali Slater with first-degree burglary and other offenses.
Paul Slater, following a remarkable recovery, pleaded guilty in April 2013. At his sentencing hearing a month later, he said, "I knocked on the door. I tried to take every precaution to make sure I was going into a vacant house. The times were tough for my family and I made the decision to commit a crime. I was going into the house to steal some jewelry.
The judge sentenced Paul Slater to 10 years in prison.
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 Paul 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 Herman 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 the 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 Mr. 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 his car into a tree.
The bloodied and badly wounded burglar crawled out of his SUV and collapsed on a nearby driveway where deputies from the Walton County Sheriff's Office found him. "Help me," he cried. "I'm close to dying."
Emergency personnel rushed the wounded intruder to the Gwinnett Medical Center where he was placed on a ventilator.
The local prosecutor charged Paul Ali Slater with first-degree burglary and other offenses.
Paul Slater, following a remarkable recovery, pleaded guilty in April 2013. At his sentencing hearing a month later, he said, "I knocked on the door. I tried to take every precaution to make sure I was going into a vacant house. The times were tough for my family and I made the decision to commit a crime. I was going into the house to steal some jewelry.
The judge sentenced Paul Slater to 10 years in prison.
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....
DeleteToo bad she didn't send him to the morgue. Animals like this criminal never stop committing crimes until they are killed.
ReplyDeleteI checked to make sure noone was home. I took every reasonable precaution before using a crowbar to break into their home and take whatever I wanted.
ReplyDeleteBut it's ok, cause I'm justified. I'm struggling, and they have more than me, and I'm entitled...