When seconds count...

[fletcher]

A perfect example:

http://wral.com/news/local/story/2086533/

Summary: Woman calls 911 to report house being robbed, deputy arrives to find her and their dog dead.

Woman Shot to Death After Calling 911 to Report Break-In


Posted: Nov. 26 10:43 a.m.
Updated: Nov. 26 8:20 p.m.

Cedar Grove — Investigators are looking for those responsible for a home break-in and fatal shooting in the Cedar Grove area of Orange County.

The men broke into a home on Compton Road at about 10:30 a.m. Monday and shot Eva Marie Johnson Jacobs, 49, Orange County Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass said.

"The investigation is moving," Pendergrass said. "We're tying to get pieces to fit together."

Dispatchers received a call from Jacobs at 9:52 a.m. about a break-in in progress.

“She just said she was being robbed,” Pendergrass said.

A deputy responded to the scene shortly thereafter, where he found her.

Jacobs was taken to UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, where she was pronounced dead.

Jacobs' husband, Donald Jacobs, said his wife died on the front porch of the trailer they were living in while they built their home.

Earlier Monday, authorities said they were looking for three men who were last seen in a white full-size extended cab truck, possibly a Ford. A description of them, however, was not available.

Forensic investigators spent most of the day collecting evidence at the scene, including possible tire prints. They also found the couple's Labrador retriever shot to death on the property.

Jacobs said the men were asking for his son, who was questioned by investigators Monday afternoon. He, however, was not considered a suspect in the case.

If you have any information about the crime, you are asked to call the Orange County Sheriff's Office at (919) 644-3050 or CrimeStoppers at 919-942-7515.

CrimeStoppers pays cash rewards for information leading to arrests in felony cases and callers never have to identify themselves.

We'll probably never know how this went down to learn lessons from it, but it just goes to reiterate how important it is to be aware, trained, and armed at home, even if you don't live in a "bad" neighborhood.


And the author really needs to learn every sentence isn't a paragraph

 

[RLsnow]

no good no good...

 

[Ed Ames]

I hate to say it, but these stories usually have a subtext as well. Something along the lines of: "Don't have kids."

Or maybe: Your situation is more than your immediate surroundings... it includes your finances, what your children are doing and what sort of friends they have/life they are leading, who is having an affair, who is perceived to deal with a lot of cash or valubles in your area (jewelry merchants, bankers, doctors, and drug dealers all may qualify), who can't control their mouth when drunk, and so on. Situational awareness means an awareness of that entire gestalt, from your immediate physical surroundings to the chance that your neighbor's daughter's drunk ex-boyfriend will come around with a shotgun and pick the wrong house.

In this case it sounds like mom wasn't sufficiently aware of what her son was doing and she paid for that ignorance.

There is definitely a lesson in that for all of us.

 

[cyclist]

The story doesn't say if she was still on the phone when she was killed. Did the dispatcher hear any shots? Seems to be something missing from the story. Plus it's a daylight incident, and the suspects were apparently asking for the son. Was the husband present during the incident? If so, why wasn't he also shot? How did the wife get to the front porch? Something doesn't add up here.