A Wisconsin mother demonstrated the importance of self-defense on Monday morning.
According to WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee, a mother of two who asked not to be identified was in the shower when she heard screams from the living room.
Her two children, ages 12 and 14, were reacting to a strange man breaking into the home, she said.
When the mother heard the commotion, she immediately jumped out of the shower and grabbed her gun.
The mother said the family’s two pit bulls attacked the intruder, but he was undeterred. “He wouldn’t stop coming,” she told WTMJ.
She shot the man in self-defense as he continued to charge at her.
“It all happened so fast — an adrenaline rush,” the woman said.
Community activist Bushraa Rahman came to the house and helped clean up the scene after the body had been removed, according to WMTV-TV in Madison, Wisconsin. She said she did not blame the mother for acting in self-defense.
“She was scared because her children were there with her,” Rahman said. “So she did what any mother would do. She defended her children. It was an act of self-defense.”
Police initially arrested the mother, but they released her after “several hours of questioning,” WTMJ reported.
While authorities have not identified the subject, the mother said he looked to be in his late 30s and was acting unpredictably.
“In today’s day and age, with mental health and everything else that’s taking place in the world, I mean, you better protect yourself,” Rahman said. “To be honest, you have to.”
The mother said she purchased her gun ten years ago for safety after she found a man sleeping under her son’s bed. She had hoped she would never face a situation where she needed to use it.
She added that her children were traumatized by the incident, and the family is looking to move out of the house as soon as they can find a new place to live.
The story out of Milwaukee was just the latest in a string of recent examples showing law-abiding citizens using firearms to defend themselves.