South Carolina mom-of-three Ashley Jones jumped into action Thursday morning after she heard a man banging on her door.
Surveillance footage shows a man knocking loudly on Jones’ door, while a woman paces behind him. Jones said she grabbed her gun and called 911 before looking out the window to see what the commotion was about.
“I yelled, ‘I have a gun, I will shoot you, get away from my house,’” Jones told FOX Carolina.
The man then kicked in her door, at which point Jones shot him.
“So then he kicks the door in as soon as he kicks the door in and tries to take a step in my house that’s when I shot him and he ran off,” she said. “Something just came over me, I got calm and my heart slowed down.”
Jones told Fox she “would’ve killed him” if she “had to.” The man and the woman ran off but were quickly picked up by police.
The would-be intruder was identified as Cecil Charles Parnell. He was charged with first-degree burglary and taken to jail, according to Fox. The woman with him was not charged.
Jones said she was thankful she had her gun.
“Because if I didn’t have any kind of weapons I don’t know what I would have did. That guy was kind of big,” she said. “I wouldn’t have been able to fight him off. I never thought I would have to shoot that gun, ever.”
Jones told WSPA, “Any mother is going to protect her kid any way she can. And that’s what I did.”