A burglar was fatally shot in Florida when he allegedly smashed through an elderly couple’s front door and attacked a woman in the home, authorities said.
Police responded to an emergency call Tuesday and found a man dead on the floor inside a residence on Mound Avenue in Panama City, according to a statement from the Bay County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO).
The man was later identified as 31-year-old Nathan Jerrell Edwards, who was spotted earlier by witnesses in the neighborhood acting erratically.
“He was screaming and swearing, and, according to witnesses, acting very aggressively and erratically,” the police statement reads.
The man who shot the intruder is reportedly in his 70s and was standing in the driveway of his house when the alleged intruder walked toward him, threatening him. The elderly man tried to get away from the man by walking into his garage, and then into his house, but was followed.
“The husband (man in his 70s) went into the garage and then into the house to get away from the man, but the man followed, beating on the door to the house,” police said.
“The man (Edwards) then went to the front door, which was glass, and busted the glass and made entry.”
Police said that after Edwards made entry, he allegedly knocked down the unidentified man in his 70s and his wife, jumped on top of her, and started beating her on the head.
The elderly man said he couldn’t physically stop the intruder, so he went upstairs to get his firearm. He reportedly shot Edwards multiple times, “ending the threat,” police said.
“EMS responded and pronounced the man dead at the scene,” the statement reads. “The wife was taken by EMS to a local hospital for treatment of her injuries.”
BCSO Criminal Investigations and Crime Scene Unit investigated the scene. Edwards was reportedly a Georgia resident who was staying at a rental residence near to the home he invaded.