A Georgia homeowner saved the day acting shooting a murder suspect who tried to force entry into his house. During the home invasion, the murder suspect who was accused of stabbing a 77-year-old woman to death.
Michael James Brooks II, 28, is suspected of murder in Ohio and is now recovering in a hospital in Georgia. Once he has regained his health, he will stand trial for the murder in Ohio and for multiple crimes in Georgia including home invasion and burglary.
According to Fox 5 Atlanta, the homeowner offered a fair verbal waring to Brooks before opening fire on him. Fayette County Sheriff Barry Babb offered his understanding of the events as they unfolded.
Babb said, “There, he took his stand as the subject made his way up to the second floor. [He] made the comment, something to the effect of, ‘You’re going to have to kill me.’ When the resident fired a second shot. That was about the time the deputies got there. From we can tell, he was coming down the stairway with a second gunshot wound. At that point, they actually still struggled with him [as they] took him into custody.”
It is unclear what brought the suspect to Georgia. Even still, police are unsure why Brooks made the hours long trip to the Peach State after leaving Ohio. Columbus Police Deputy Chief Smith Weir said, “We don’t know what the connection is with Georgia, or if there was a connection, however, he is from Columbus.”
According to police, Brooks did not have any relation to the woman who he stabbed to death in Ohio, a surprising fact given the often personal motivation behind a stabbing. Police Chief Weir said, “It gave us pause initially as well because it’s common law enforcement knowledge it tends to be a more personally attack using a knife. Usually, when we have incidents of stabbings, they are a personal attack.”
Police in Columbus, Ohio say that Brooks was released from jail the night before the murder, after being charged with aggravated assault. Weir said, “Initially, he was on a parole hold. And the second part is, I believe, at a certain point, the parole hold ended, and he began serving time on the pending felony assault charge. And at that point, he was awaiting sentencing, and I believe he bonded out at that point.
Weir continued, nothing that Brooks’ criminal history is known by, “Some agencies and cities up and down I-75, all the way from Detroit, obviously no down to Georgia, and some communities in between.”
With this most recent case of home defense, we gain another piece of evidence that a firearm can be a crucial tool in keeping one’s home and family safe. Who is to say who wins in a hand to hand fight, but the firearm is the great equalizer that gives the good guy a chance against evildoers who seek to cause harm and destruction wherever they go.
The Featured Image is from the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.
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