Early Thursday morning, a pastor in Cherokee County Georgia used a gun to defend his family and shoot an intruder who broke into his home.
The pastor has not been named, but a neighbor, Billy Kennedy, who lives across the street, said the pastor’s wife and oldest child ran across the street shouting, “There’s an intruder and my babies are in there.”
According to local news reports, the pastor and his family were sleeping in the early morning hours when they heard a loud noise from the basement in their Woodstock, Georgia home. The intruder was named by local deputies as 19-year-old Donovan Simmons. Simmons allegedly broke into the home via a basement window.
When the pastor went to investigate, he shot Simmons, allegedly in self defense, while the mother and the couple’s oldest child, 12, ran across the street for help. The names of the family have not been released. The husband and the couple’s two younger children, who slept through the incident, were unharmed.
Pictures from the incident show the broken basement window and the quaint country home not too far off of Georgia Highway 92.
Law enforcement said Simmons received a gunshot wound to the head and collapsed in the family’s back yard when he was presumably trying to get away. Simmons was taken to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital where he is currently in stable condition.
Charges are pending for the attempted burglar, who apparently lived nearby, but local investigators said they were not sure why the pastor’s family was targeted.