Would your teenager have the presence of mind to handle a home invader armed with a hatchet? This 16-year-old did. Home alone in Choctaw County, Mississippi, he saw his uncle standing on the porch wielding a hatchet, trying to force his way in. The kid grabbed a .270 hunting rifle and, after the man made an aggressive move toward him, shot him squarely in the chest.
As usual, the incident happened far too quickly for police do much besides clean up afterward. By the time officers arrived in response to reports of gunfire, Jerry Lee Robinson already was dead.
The teen’s mother, Rachel Cork (above), is just grateful that things didn’t turn out any worse.
“It could have been the other way around,” said Ms. Cork. “It could have been my son… I’m picking up and having to bury, but it wasn’t.”
This wasn’t the uncle’s first time causing problems for the family. In a previous incident, he’d confronted his brother (Rachel’s husband) in the backyard while holding not one, but two machetes.
“If there’s something he can’t have, he would get mad, and so he would come and take it out on us,” Rachel said.
From an outside perspective, it seems like most people, including the sheriff, weren’t too surprised and are seeing this as a clear case of self-defense. Robinson was no stranger to trouble.
Violent people are prone to attacking those who are closest to them both in proximity and blood relation and can’t always be controlled by restraining orders or other legal measures. We’ll probably never know whether Robinson deliberately targeted the teenager, knowing he was home alone, but it’s a good thing the kid had the instinct and the means to fight back.
Although the case will be presented to a grand jury in August, no charges are being filed against the teenager at this time.