In September 2014, a woman in Las Vegas wrote a short post online with the title “I shot my stalker tonight.” It went viral, and Bearing Arms reprinted it. This post used to be a straight copy of what she wrote. I’ve replaced it with my own summary of her story and what the police reports showed.
Six months of it
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the two met online and dated for about three weeks in February 2014. The breakup seemed friendly at first. Starting in March, police said, he threatened her in person and online and tried to reach her through her family and friends. Between March and September he tried to break into her home four times and set up 15 social media accounts to threaten her. She was evicted from one apartment because her neighbors were scared of him. She told police she felt like a “hermit.”
She applied for a restraining order in May. When she told him she wanted one, his answer was, “That won’t help, that’s just a piece of paper.” Police didn’t serve it until three days before the shooting. Over those months he told her he would shoot her in the face, and later that he would kill her and himself.
The night he came through the door
Shortly after 1 a.m. on September 26, 2014, he broke through the door of her apartment. In her post she said she had been propping a chair against the front door for the past month to buy a few seconds, and that the chair slowed him down. She grabbed her gun, went to the top of the stairs and fired twice. She hit him once in the chest. He ran, and police found him hiding in some bushes. He lived.
In her own words, “I survived, where so many people do not.” He was charged with aggravated stalking and home invasion. The Clark County District Attorney’s office said she wasn’t facing charges.
The story didn’t end there. In 2020 the Washoe County District Attorney announced a 15-year prison sentence for a man named Jackson who pleaded guilty to aggravated stalking a different woman in the Reno-Sparks area. He was on parole at the time for his Las Vegas aggravated stalking conviction, in a case where a former girlfriend shot him while he was breaking into her home.
About warning shots
After her post went around, people told her she should have fired a warning shot. She answered that there’s no such thing. A gun is deadly force, you only pull the trigger when you’re in fear for your life and nothing else will stop it, and a warning shot can hit someone you never meant to hit.
She’s right, and I teach the same thing. A bullet fired into the air or the ground has to come down or go somewhere. If you weren’t justified in shooting the person, you weren’t justified in firing the gun.
What this means in Minnesota
Inside your own home in Minnesota you have no duty to retreat, but there’s no presumption that you were in fear either. Deadly force has to be necessary to resist an offense you reasonably believe exposes you to great bodily harm or death, or to prevent a felony in your home (Minn. Stat. § 609.065). A man with a history of threatening to kill you, forcing his way through your door at 1 a.m., is about as clear as it gets. You would still have to explain all of it.
That history is why the paper trail matters. A UNLV criminologist quoted by the Review-Journal told stalking victims to keep a journal and “write down everything.” Save every message, every account, every police report number. In Minnesota you can ask a court for a Harassment Restraining Order (Minn. Stat. § 609.748), or an Order for Protection if the person is a family or household member or someone you’ve had a significant romantic relationship with (Minn. Stat. § 518B.01). Stalking is a crime here too (§ 609.749). An order won’t stop a bullet, as this story shows, but it puts the threat on record.
And on warning shots: in Minnesota, intentionally firing a gun in a way that endangers someone, or recklessly firing a gun within city limits, are both felonies (Minn. Stat. § 609.66, subd. 1a).
If someone is threatening you and you want to be ready, my Permit to Carry class is a good place to start. Sign up for a Permit to Carry class at mnselfdefense.com. Questions? Text me at 507-533-5774 or email chris@mnselfdefense.com.
Chris Marquette, Precision Plus Firearms Training
Disclaimer
This post is general education, not legal advice. I’m a firearms instructor, not your attorney. Laws and court decisions change, and every situation is different. If you have questions about a specific situation, talk to a Minnesota attorney.
Sources
News
“Las Vegas woman shoots man after six months of stalking,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, Oct. 2014
Bob Owens, “Holy Sh*t, I Survived: Woman Shoots Elusive Stalker Who Tormented Her For Six Months, Bares Soul Online,” Bearing Arms, Sept. 26, 2014
Washoe County District Attorney, “Prison Sentence Secured in Aggravated Stalking Case,” Sept. 2020
Minnesota law
Minn. Stat. § 609.065, Justifiable Taking of Life
Minn. Stat. § 609.66, Dangerous Weapons
Minn. Stat. § 609.748, Harassment; Restraining Order
Minn. Stat. § 609.749, Harassment; Stalking
Minn. Stat. § 518B.01, Domestic Abuse Act