A Texas mom has defended fatally shooting a 14-year-old boy who was trying to enter her home.
Aleah Wallace, a Fort Worth mother of four, spoke exclusively to FOX 4 about the recent incident in which she shot and killed a 14-year-old boy attempting to break into her rental home.
The tragic event has sparked yet another conversation around self-defense and gun ownership.
The incident occurred on December 14, when Wallace - who lives with her four daughters in a duplex - heard someone attempting to break in. Wallace revealed that she had recently acquired a gun to protect her family after a series of break-ins in the local area.
"I was cleaning my living room, sweeping my floor, and I heard my window start going back up," Wallace recalled. "So I went, and I stood in the hallway. And I could see him standing at the window, lifting it up. I just shot."
The gunshots tragically claimed the life of 14-year-old Devin Baker, who was at the bedroom window of Wallace's eight-year-old daughter. The incident occurred not long after the police had left Wallace's home following her 911 call about the attempted break-in.
Wallace explained that she had experienced four attempted burglaries before this incident, and she felt she had to take action to protect her family.
"I have four daughters. It’s just me and my four daughters that stay there. I just was protecting my daughters," she said. "I'm devastated that he was 14. I hate that. I literally do. And I'm so sorry. But at that point, I had to think about my babies. I didn’t know he was 14 when he was on the other side of that window.
"All I knew was that somebody could come in and hurt me or my kids. That's it."
The case has been sent to a grand jury - but no charges have been filed against Wallace at this time.
Wallace has also revealed that she is now facing eviction from her subsidized housing. She claims that her apartment management informed her that she was not allowed to have a gun, despite her repeated reports of attempted break-ins. Wallace said she was given 30 days to vacate her apartment and now faces uncertainty about housing for her family.
"I feel like I'm back at square one. I was there for six years, and now I don't know what to do," she said.
There is no clear law prohibiting residents of government-subsidized housing from owning a gun, and no signs indicating such restrictions were found on the property.
The complex's local manager directed inquiries to the corporate office, which, in turn, advised contacting on-site management.
In another report by Fox, it was revealed that the teenager was an eighth-grader at a local middle school.
His mom had revealed that he snuck out of the house that evening, and she didn't realize he was gone until the morning.