Mom Edmonds shoots intruder breaking into home as four kids slept inside (Video)

Edmonds mom shoots home intruder, Thanksgiving morning was shattered for an Edmonds family early Thursday when an intruder tried to break into the family’s home.

Edmonds police say the woman was awakened around 3:15 a.m Thursday by the sound of someone pounding at their front door. She called 911 then grabbed her gun and went by the front door as the intruder began to force his way inside.

“They thought they knew who was pounding on the door. That’s why they opened it,” said Sgt. Bob Barker with the Edmonds Police Department. “When it wasn’t who they thought, they tried to push him out. It didn’t work.”

The woman struggled with the intruder but, realizing she wasn’t going to be able to hold him back much longer, fired a shot at his stomach, police said. The intruder was not armed.

Officers arrived moments later to find the wounded intruder, identified by family members as 22-year-old Nelson Petrone, still at the front of the house in the 16400 block of 75th Place W.

Petrone was taken into custody then driven to Harborview Medical Center where he’s still being treated for the wound. No one else was hurt.

“I still don’t believe it. You don’t wake up on Thanksgiving and realize that your brother is in the hospital in intensive care. It’s heartbreaking,” said Petrone’s older brother, Evan.

Police say the woman’s husband and 14-, 10- and 5-year-old children were inside the home, as well as a friend of the 14-year-old.

Investigators say preliminary evidence supports self defense.

“There were the kids in the house. She was scared, and so she was doing what she could to protect her family,” Barker said.

Evan Petrone said his brother was out drinking with friends in downtown Edmonds Wednesday night and mistakenly came to the house looking for friends.

“He wasn’t breaking into the house,” Evan said. “He was intoxicated, yes, and he may have made some bad decisions … (but) he wasn’t trying to harm anybody. He was at the wrong place at the wrong time. That was his safe place. That was where his friends were, and to him that was where his friends still lived.”

Evan said his brother’s friends used to live at the home in question and he was unaware they had moved.

Agencies/Canadajournal