(This post may contain disputed claims. We make no assertions as to the validity of the information presented by our Opinion Columnist. We are an opinion blog, not a traditional news outlet, and this post should be treated as such. Enjoy.)A Florida woman who was eight-months pregnant and came out wielding an AR-15 rifle reportedly saved her husband and pre-teen daughter from a pair of violent intruders who had broken into the family’s home — with the gun-toting matriarch fatally striking one of the men, who was later found dead in a nearby ditch.
Jeremy King was at his home in Lithia at 9 p.m. Wednesday night when two armed men with bad intentions, wearing masks and hoods, broke inside his residence.
“As soon as they had got the back door opened, they had a pistol on me and was grabbing my 11-year-old daughter,” King told Bay News 9. “I’m telling them, ‘I have nothing for you,’ and they’re like, ‘Give me everything you got.’ It became real violent, real fast.”
The bruises and swelling on King’s face tell the story of a man on the receiving end of a brutal assault, but his actual account of the violent confrontation is far more harrowing than his injuries suggest.
King said one of the men started pistol-whipping him while another kicked him in the head, creating a commotion that attracted the attention of his pregnant wife, who walked into the room to see what was causing the noise — and soon found herself dodging bullets.
She reportedly retreated and grabbed an AR-15 that was legally inside their home, returning fire and hitting one of the intruders.
“When he came toward the back door in her line of sight, she clipped him,” King said of his wife. “He made it from my back door to roughly 200 feet out in the front ditch before the AR did its thing.”
The man was later found dead in a ditch, according to reports. The other intruder fled when his accomplice was shot.
“Them guys came in with two normal pistols and my AR stopped it. [My wife] evened the playing field and kept them from killing me,” King said, noting he suffered a severe beating.
“I’ve got a fractured eye socket, a fractured sinus cavity, a concussion, 20 stitches and three staples in my head,” said King. “I took a severe beating.”
Neither of the intruders was publicly identified by authorities. Anyone with information on the incident or the burglar’s whereabouts is urged to contact the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office at 813-247-8200.
