A man who broke into a Los Angeles home on Saturday morning and attacked his estranged girlfriend was killed after the woman’s mother and daughter came to her rescue, according to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.
Officials said that Justin Goss, 40, broke into the home, located in South Pasadena, by chucking a concrete slab through the window, reports the Los Angeles Times. Once Goss was inside the home, he confronted his alleged estranged girlfriend, an unnamed 37-year-old woman, and started to strangle her and punch her in the face.
But the woman’s sister and mother, who were nearby, came to her rescue and confronted Goss, said Lieutenant Barry Hall of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.
“They tried to pull him off, and it didn’t work; he was too strong,” Hall told the Los Angeles Times. “So they had to resort to using weapons.”
The Pasadena Star-News reports that the woman’s sister and mother grabbed two weapons — a golf club and a kitchen knife — and proceeded to beat Goss with the golf club and stab him with the kitchen knife.
According to KTLA-5, sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene soon after receiving a domestic disturbance report. When the deputies arrived, they heard women screaming inside the home, and proceeded to enter through the window.
It’s not clear how severely Goss was beaten or how many times he was stabbed, but deputies reportedly found him after entering the home and tried to perform first aid. He was declared dead by the South Pasadena Fire Department shortly after, reports KTLA-5.
“They were well within their right to act in defense of their sister and daughter,” Hall told the L.A. Times. The mother and daughter have not been charged with a crime.
According to the Pasadena Star-News, the woman who was beaten was hospitalized after the attack for lacerations to her face and bruises. While authorities did not indicate her condition at the time of the attack, the woman has since been released from the hospital.
In a similar incident earlier this year, an assailant was beaten by a 73-year-old woman armed with a flag pole after he trespassed on her property and started attacking members of her family.
“[I] grabbed my glory and [started] beating the hell back,” Lejune Timmerman told KUTV. “I whooped his a** and I’ll whoop it again.”
Timmerman beat the man so hard that she broke the flag pole. The family then retreated inside the home. The attacker did not stay down, and proceeded to break in and attack people, but the South Salt Lake Police Department arrived soon after and promptly arrested him. The man was charged with aggravated burglary, aggravated assault, and criminal mischief.
After Timmerman expressed concern to the officers that she had desecrated the American flag, the police department bought her a new one.