NC: After Gunfight, AR-15 used for defense of Home in Catawba County

On the 7th of February, 2018, three young masked men approached a home in Catawba County at about 6 p.m. One of the young men, a 17-year-old, shot at the intended victim.  The intended victim, also 17, was armed and fired back, hitting the attacker several times, killing him.

Shane Cauthen, Masked 17-Year-Old Shot and Killed in Self Defense Gunfight

The other two masked men have been arrested, and the incident investigated. The two remaining suspects are 22 and 16 years old.  The investigators met with the District Attorney on Thursday morning. A determination was made the shooting was in self-defense.

The family of the teen who defended himself has received death threats. A tense situation occurred when a relative of the 17-year-old suspect who was killed approached the property.  He was stopped by a man armed with an AR-15 type rifle, and told to leave. There is video of the confrontation. From wbtv.com:

A man at the house who is a relative of the teen who was the robbery target, drove up to the edge of the driveway and asked that man to leave. He didn’t.

That’s when the relative pulled out an AR-15 rifle and asked the man to go away.

When that gentleman reached behind him, as of to pull out something from behind his back, the relative with the AR-15 raised the barrel, pointed it at the man, and yelled at him to stop.

It turned out he was just trying to show that he was not armed.

The video shows the usefulness of the rifle in stopping a threat.

While the intruder was not armed, the rifleman was confident enough of his position to hesitate in firing, even though the man confronting him chose to show that he was unarmed in a confrontational and foolish fashion.


©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch