We repeat this time and time, “Do not fire warning shots.” If you are pulling a gun on someone, you should be ready to use it. And in this case, the warning shots did nothing to scare off the suspect.

According to a Minneapolis homeowner, a man broke into her detached garage last week around 8:30 PM. She confronted the intruder and fired four warning shots into the air with a rifle. But the warning shots didn’t scare the suspect off. As he advanced on her and reached into his waistband, she shot him with a rifle.

The homeowner called the police, informing them that she had just shot an intruder. They found the suspect deceased and face down in the snow outside the garage.

A neighbor told local news:

“Police can’t do it all themselves. You have to do what we all have to do to protect ourselves and protect out home. If someone tries to come up and invade your space. You know, you have to call police. You have a weapon and ask someone to leave, you are going to do whatever.”

The Attorney’s Office is still determining whether the shooting was justified or not. Minnesota does not have a Stand Your Ground law. They impose a “duty to retreat,” meaning you have to retreat if at all possible and use deadly force as a last resort. The fact that she fired four warning shots may not help her case here. There’s also the fact that she stated she was protecting her property. There is security footage from her house that may have captured the incident. We will have to wait to see if any charges are brought up. But this is a really important reminder to know the laws in your state.

Warning Shots in Self Defense: Considerations and Consequences

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