KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. - A North Carolina woman has been arrested and charged after police say she shot a man who was running away from her home.
Amy Brewer says she was inside her home on Monday afternoon when all of a sudden she heard movement underneath her home. Brewer says she thought someone was trying to break into her home, so she grabbed her gun and fired twice. She says she was only trying to protect her property from burglars but she was the one who was arrested.
"I heard what sounded like to me someone jerking on the storage room door," said Amy Brewer. "I came around the corner and I saw a young man in a burgundy hoodie with the hood up jump around my trashcan and over my flower bed running that way."
Brewer says she was worried about what the unknown men were going to do next so she fired two warning shots.
"I had no intentions of hurting anybody, I wanted to scare these young men," said Brewer.
According to police, the woman's warning shot ended up being a direct hit. One of the men spotted leaving her home was shot in the leg. Police identified the victim as 19-year-old Nathan Beane of Wanchese.
"I figured it was his calf and then when I heard it was his thigh I mean I cried all night," explained Brewer. "If that shot had been any higher I could have killed that young man."
While Beane was treated for his non life threatening injuries, Brewer was arrested and charged with Assault with a Deadly Weapon Inflicting Serious Injury.
Brewer says she understands that she broke the law, but doesn't believe she should have been charged. Especially since no charges have been filed against the men Brewer says were trying to break into her home.
"They were here to commit a criminal act and in my mind they admitted their guilt when they started running their car was in the other direction they had no business at this house."
According to Police, there is no evidence to suggest that the men were trying to break into Brewer's home.
News 3 spoke to Beane's family today, they did not want to talk on camera but say that their son wasn't doing anything wrong. They claim he was only in the wrong place at the wrong time.
