Thankfully for an Arizona woman who faced this exact situation, her options included a ready firearm.
Authorities in Pima County, Arizona, report a female resident shot and killed a registered sex offender who attempted to break into her house last week. The Sheriff’s Office said that 43-year-old Jason Magrum faced at least eight different charges dating back to 2006 for various infractions.
He was also on the sex offender registry in Utah.
His target was the 54-year-old woman’s rural residence southwest of Tucson. When she saw that a stranger was trying to enter her home, she wisely retrieved a gun and fired a warning shot through the window.
Normally that should be all it takes to scare a semi-reasonable person away, but that did not do the trick. But when the suspect allegedly attempted to subdue his intended victim, a second shot did.
It struck Magrum, and when deputies arrived, they rendered first aid to the suspect. However, he did not survive his wound. The suspect was discovered by investigators living on the same block of the road as the intended victim.
With that in mind, he may well have known that a woman was there by herself. Thankfully she was physically uninjured, though doubtlessly she was traumatized by the frightening situation.
As the incident appears to be a cut and dried case of self-defense, the woman currently does not face charges. She is fortunate that she was wise enough to be prepared to aggressively deal with the explosive situation, and this incident should serve as a cautionary tale for those who would prey on the innocent.
