Bruce Webb McLaughlin (left) and Timothy Dill. CBS News/Pickens County Sheriff's Department.
A South Carolina woman shot and killed an escaped convict who kicked in her door. CBS News. The convict, Bruce Webb McLaughlin escaped with another convict, Timothy Dill from Pickens County Prison by wounding two guards. Dill was captured by police shortly after but McLaughlin kicked down a door to the woman's house, picked up a foot long metal sharpening tool and entered the woman's bedroom. The woman, who has asked to remain anonymous, shot the intruder in the head, killing him. The woman had a CCW permit and weapons training. Local police are not planning on filing charges against the woman and have hailed her as a "hero".
My Comment:
This could have gone very differently if the woman hadn't been armed. McLaughlin was an extremely dangerous person and was likely to injure or kill the homeowner. In addition to assaulting the prison guards, he had also been arrested for assaulting a cop and pointing a gun at someone, along with many other crimes. Though there was no guarantee that he would have hurt or killed this woman, it wouldn't be surprising if he did if she had been unarmed.
This was pretty obviously a good shooting. South Carolina is a castle doctrine state so the fact that he broke in was all the legal justification she needed. But even without castle doctrine, she probably would have been fine. He didn't just break into the house, he was advancing on the woman while armed with a foot long hunk of metal.She had no where to go and no choice but to use force to protect her life. There is essentially zero chance of her being punished in this case. I think even in Europe she wouldn't have been charged with murder.
This incident also shows the importance of training. The woman managed to pull off a headshot on close range attacker, which is difficult even for an expert shooter. That makes me think she had a lot of practice at the gun range, which is backed up by the article which stated she had gun training. Of course going for a headshot isn't always a good strategy as it is smaller than the torso, but it worked out in this case. It's possible that she just shot high, which isn't surprising but if she did go for the headshot, I am impressed that she pulled it off. Either way, it worked out in the best way for the woman.
I do have to wonder how the convicts escaped. Both of them were awaiting trial but given the seriousness of the crimes they were charged with and McLaughlin prior convictions, you would have thought they would have been in a higher security area. How they managed to escape just by beating up a couple of prison guards is a huge question and one that probably deserves an investigation.
It does go to show how dangerous these men were. They were smart enough to formulate an escape plan and crazy enough to attack two guards. They were strong enough to beat up those guards and were somehow able to escape. They were both obviously a huge threat to the public and I am glad that both of them are no longer a threat. Unfortunately Dill is still alive and not in the morgue like his partner McLaughlin.
I don't blame the woman for being anonymous. I know the last thing most people would want to do after going through something like this is talk to the media. This case made national news so I bet there was a chance for a media circus, which is always something I would want to avoid. Plus, given the fact that she was a woman who used her gun to protect herself, there is a decent chance she could get harassed and death threats by anti-gun trolls.
Still, this woman did the right thing and the cops did the right thing by backing her. She never should have been placed in this situation in the first place but given the situation she did what she had to do to survive. She's still around and a true scumbag isn't. That's a win-win as far as I am concerned.
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