'Pistol packin' mama' gets permission to shoot intruder

A TEENAGE American mother who called 911 to check if it was okay to use her shotgun against a man breaking into her mobile home, and duly shot him dead, will not be charged. Oklahoma law allows the use of deadly force against intruders, and prosecutors have said Sarah McKinley clearly acted in self-defence.

McKinley, 18, was at home with her three-month-old son in Blanchard, Oklahoma on New Year’s Eve when 24-year-old Justin Martin tried to break in, according to the local NBC radio station KFOR. He was carrying a 12-inch hunting knife.
 
After barricading her front door with a couch, McKinley hid in her bedroom with her son, giving him a bottle while she found her 12-gauge shotgun and a pistol. Calling 911, she whispered to the dispatcher: “I’ve got two guns in my hand. Is it OK to shoot him if he comes in this door?”
 
The dispatcher told her she had to do whatever she could to protect herself and her baby, but warned that she could not shoot him until he was inside the house. McKinley – now known as Oklahoma’s “pistol packin’ mama” in US news headlines - waited 20 minutes until he got through the door before taking the deadly shot.
 
Martin was accompanied by Dustin Stewart, 29. While McKinley will not be charged with any crime, Stewart has been charged with first-degree murder because his accomplice’s death occurred during a burglary. The two men were thought to be looking for prescription medicine.

Only two days earlier, McKinley had buried her husband, Kenneth, who had died from cancer on Christmas Day, according to the local newspaper, The Oklahoman.
 
The young mother said Martin had knocked on her front door on the day of the funeral and she believed he had been stalking her. Four of her female German shepherds had died mysteriously within the previous month.
 
According to the Oklahoman, McKinley was a high school dropout who learned to ride and break horses at the age of eight and started living with Kenneth, who was 40 years her senior, three years ago.
 
It was Kenneth who had taught her how to shoot. She had to sell his guns and other possessions to pay for his funeral but kept the shotgun as a keepsake for her son.

McKinley said it was a tough decision to shoot the intruder but added: “There’s nothing more dangerous than a mother with her baby.”  ·