“It took a lot of courage,” an Arizona woman alleged after a “raging” stranger tried to break down her front door while she was home with her son, forcing her to take action. Although she admits to struggling with what she had to do, she also says she’s proud. Would you be, too?
Jenelle Williams was home with her 16-year-old son one weekend when the pair decided to go to the store. As the mother and son tried to leave their apartment, Jenelle heard a man screaming at someone outside one of the buildings in her Phoenix complex. That was enough to send her running back inside, but it was too late.
“I opened my door like a deer caught in headlights. We make eye contact and I was like, ‘Oh, you’re right here,'” she recalled.
Unfortunately, that was only the beginning of what would become a harrowing incident for the Arizona mom. Much to Jenelle’s horror, the screaming stranger, who saw her run back inside, turned his attention to her apartment, where he started beating on her door. He was beating on it so hard that Jenelle believed her door was going to be knocked down.
“To almost knock a door down like that, you have to be really raging,” Jenelle said. “It was going to come down. I saw it bend in, like bend, not break or crack, just bend.”
Fearing for her safety and the well-being of her son, Jenelle decided there was only one thing for her to do. She retrieved her gun and warned the “raging” man, telling him it was time to go, Fox 10 Phoenix reported. Unfortunately, he didn’t listen, and Jenelle wasn’t bluffing.
“That’s when I was announcing already, ‘Hey, I got a gun, I got a gun. Get away from my house.’ Then, I shot. I fired,” Jenelle said.
Remembering that she was in a stand-your-ground state, Jenelle decided to defend herself with deadly force. She shot at the suspect, firing through her front door to protect herself and her son from the strange man, who was trying to break in. However, it wasn’t an easy decision to make. Jenelle admitted that it took a lot of courage to fire her weapon, even in self-defense. So, she’s proud of herself for making a difficult decision that she believes likely saved her and her son’s life.
“It’s not the shooting range. It’s real life,” Jenelle Williams explained. “What went through my head was, ‘This is a stand-your-ground state, this is a stand-your-ground state, so you can defend yourself, Jenelle.’ I’m just aiming, and I’m like, ‘He’s coming in, you can defend yourself, Jenelle.’ It took a lot of courage to do that.”
Jenelle Williams reportedly fired two shots but missed. However, it was enough to scare the man away. Although she was shaken, she was alive and able to call the police. Law enforcement arrived, but officers were unable to identify or locate the alleged suspect, who Jenelle believes was involved in a domestic violence situation with another tenant in the apartment complex.
“I went back in instinctively. I really believe that comes from my history as a domestic violence survivor. I’ve been out of a domestic violence relationship for over ten years now, but I have that still in me. So, I kind of recognized that rage, and that’s why it’s so hard on me because it’s just reopened all the wounds that I worked so hard to close,” Jenelle explained.
As a survivor of domestic violence herself, Jenelle said her father had recently told her to buy a gun to protect herself, according to The Blaze. She finally did, and she’s glad she listened.
“My dad had been telling me to get a gun for a long time and I finally did earlier this year. It just kind of happened. I happened to be there, and they happened to have it and I happened to get it,” Jenelle said. “I’m very happy that I did.”
One of the five essential gun safety tips says, “Know Your Target and What’s Beyond,” so it is ill-advised to shoot through a closed door. In this case, the fearful mother could hear the intruder beating on the door, which was a great indicator of what was on the other side, but we would be amiss if we didn’t point out that these actions were still ill-advised. Thankfully, no one was hurt. That may not have been the case had Jenelle Williams allowed this man to break down her door before firing her weapon.
The sad truth is that we live in a dangerous world, where innocent people are often forced to protect themselves from others, who wish to inflict harm. Thankfully, our Second Amendment provides Americans the opportunity to meet force with force and effectively defend themselves against threats that could otherwise render us defenseless. There’s a reason a firearm is referred to as the great equalizer. It takes an otherwise helpless individual and gives them the power to overcome threats that could easily cost them their lives. Thankfully, this story is one of a woman who wasn’t about to let that happen.
