Woman, 68, Shot Boy, 12, in Her Yard, Is Hailed as a Hero; He and Pal, 13, Are Criminally Charged
For over a year, an elderly Chicago woman says, she was harassed at her South Side home by two boys, now 12 and 13.
When the retiree returned home from grocery shopping Tuesday, she found two broken windows, saw the pair running away and called police. Then, as she was putting her purchases away, they returned. Standing atop a shed in her yard, they threw bricks at her when she went out onto her porch and told them to leave and began swearing at her, recounts the Chicago Tribune.
Margaret Matthews, 68, called the police again … and got her gun and returned to the porch. At some point, a brick hit her in the chest, she said. So Matthews fired at the two, hitting the 12-year-old in the shoulder.
He was treated and released and she says she is glad she didn’t kill him. But “there is no explanation for how I felt,” Matthews, who has lived in the house alone since her husband died several years ago, told the Trib. “I was terrified.”
Police confirmed with witnesses that Mathews had been previously harassed by the two unidentified boys and charged them with aggravated assault to a senior citizen. Matthews reportedly will not be charged.
The Chicago Sun-Times says the charge is a misdemeanor.
A crowd of neighbors hailed Matthews as a hero after the incident for protecting herself in a dangerous part of the South Shore area, in the 7600 block of South Coles Avenue.
“I think she gave them as much warning as I think she could,” Rafael Ramirez told People magazine.
“That boy terrorized this neighborhood,’’ Ronald Hunt told the Sun-Times. “I had to set my dogs on him when he tried to tear my place up.’’
The injured 12-year-old’s sister, Donna Renee Atkinson, complained to the newspaper that her brother didn’t throw any bricks and was simply walking past Matthews’ home when she shot him.
