By the time Melinda Herman called her husband at work to say an intruder was in the house, she had rushed both children into an upstairs bedroom and locked two doors behind her. She also had retrieved a .38 from the gun safe. The only place left to hide was a crawl space that led to the attic, and that's where Herman crouched, with her son and daughter beside her and a revolver in her hand.Walton County sheriff's deputies barreled toward the subdivision, but the intruder reached the crawl space first. When he opened the door, Herman fired six times.
Sadly, the perp survived. More training needed! Reading further, she did hit him with five of the six shots.
...from the case file:
Mrs. Herman stated the subject came in the bathroom and opened the crawl space door. Mrs. Herman stated she started shooting at the subject. Mrs. Herman stated she kept shooting at the subject and the subject started yelling please stop.
Mrs. Herman stated she realized she had shot all of her rounds in the weapon. Mrs. Herman stated she kept yelling at him to stay down. Mrs. Herman stated she told him if he tried to get up, she would shoot him again. Mrs. Herman stated she grabbed her kids and they ran downstairs.
The deputies' report does not mention the blood, the walls, the carpet or the screaming and crying. Nor does it say that the revolver Herman used was loaded with ammunition from a visit to a gun range a week before.
"Her husband had just talked her into learning how to shoot," says Capt. Greg Hall, chief of detectives, sitting across the desk from the sheriff. "You've got two little kids trying to hide behind mama. The lady did what any mother would do."
Herman fired six shots, missing only once. Paul Ali Slater, 32, an unemployed father of six,
| From which detail we are to conclude that he was just trying to support his family... |
| Then why did he chase the residents all the way to the top of the house, instead of either grabbing what was at hand or leaving upon being seen? There were plenty of other houses in the neighborhood, surely. |
| This is starting to sound like a "Darwin wins" situation. |
| Not that it would have helped in this case, as our perpetrator had no legal intentions whatsoever. |
So what's a Mother to do?
"He came to my house before he went to the Hermans'," says Anita Brown, 38. "I saw him drive up." Brown says she was in her office when she saw an SUV pull into her driveway. The man who got out was wearing a hoodie and baggy jeans" Brown says. She grabbed her phone and went outside before he could make it to her front door.
He said he was looking for a coach, according to Brown. He was vague when she asked for specifics. "Where's he coach at?" Brown asked. The man retreated to his vehicle and left. Brown went inside to cook lunch. She did not hear the gunshots a few cul-de-sacs away at the Hermans' house.
"If she hadn't shot him, we'd be having a murder trial right now," Brown says. "I firmly believe that."
This is the WaPo. How are they gonna work this into The Narrative?
"Let's go," Zakia Slater calls to two of her sons, who have just inhaled dinner and are 20 minutes from the start of basketball practice. They load into the SUV.
| The same one her husband took on his robbery expedition? |
"It certainly isn't," Zakia says, trying to conceal one more frustration in a life now built on them.
Suddenly she is on her own with six children, and her husband is known as "that guy who got shot by the lady."
| Too late for Darwin to kick in, it appears. |
"I want to see Daddy," her youngest daughter says. "When are we gonna be able to see Daddy?"
"Daddy broke the law," she says.
The community that Paul Slater upended includes his own family. His wife of nine years
| Six children in nine years? Goodness. |
She has prayed a lot herself. Zakia can't explain why her husband broke into a house with a crowbar. She imagines Herman and her children, "scared out their minds," she says. But her husband said he was looking for jewelry, not people. Her fiercest conviction is that he had no intention of hurting anyone. "I can never imagine him doing anything like that," she says.
To which Capt. Hall of the sheriff's office says, "Bless her heart."
| Which, I have been told, is Southron for a great many things, most of which do not mean "Bless her heart." |
Thus endeth the lesson.
More details from an article in Daily Mail dated January 6, 2013. Perp had a record and had served time.