A California woman celebrated a legal win nearly a year after she defended herself with a firearm during an attack in the home in which she was renting a room. The woman, a long-haul truck driver, had recently moved to the state for her job, and had been renting a room from the mother of a friend. The attack occurred during an evening in September 2022 when she was adjourning to her quarters. One of her roommates, a male, had recently returned home and attempted to strike up a conversation with her.
The woman told FOX News Digital that she was tired and just wanted to go to bed, and told the man they could talk the next day. But the man ignored her request, and her attempts to evade him by going elsewhere in the home were unsuccessful. The man reportedly began to behave in an agitated manner, and even became violent. The woman then tried to escape his advances by entering a bathroom, but he followed her in and wouldn’t allow her to close the door. That’s when the woman was convinced something worse was about to happen, so she bolted out and went for her purse, where she kept her handgun. The woman had initially purchased her firearm as protection during her travels in her trucking job.
The woman told FOX, "I fired one round because he got on top of me, because he pushed me down, pushed me against the wall," she recounted. The round did not hit him, and other residents in the home were already on the phone calling 9-1-1. When police arrived, she was arrested and charged with discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, a felony, and exhibiting a firearm, which is a misdemeanor. The woman initially spent 20 days in jail, and after a lengthy legal battle, was found to have acted in self-defense. Her case was ultimately dismissed in July 2023. (FoxNews.com; San Bernardino, CA; Sept. 2023)