Age is nothing but a number.
An 80-year-old woman in the small town of Sultan, Wash., proved that Thursday night when she shot and killed an alleged intruder who broke into her home.
At the moment, details are thin.
A 25-year-old man from Gold Bar, Wash. — a town of about 2,000 — allegedly broke into the older woman’s home around 8:30 p.m. Thursday while she was enjoying an evening with her husband, 75, and son, 45. The man allegedly stabbed her husband in the abdomen, felling but not killing him. Before calling 911, the woman took matters into her own hands and shot the intruder, killing him.
She — along with her son — managed to escape without any injuries.
Her husband was airlifted to the Harborview Regional Medical Center.
Detectives suspect the man was a stranger, who was trying to rob the elderly couple, according to a press release from the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.
“Identification of the suspect, as well as cause and manner of death, will be provided by the Snohomish County Medical Examiner,” it states.
Sultan, part of Snohomish County, which also includes Gold Bar, is a small town of around 4,000 people about an hour’s drive inland from Seattle. Though it boasts a similarly low crime rate, a Block Watch comprised of citizens and led by president Bob Klement has been working with police to expand the program.
At a meeting last year, Sheriff Ty Trenary said, “Homelessness, mental illness and drug addiction are at an all-time high. We believe, right now, Snohomish County is the epicenter of the problem,” the Monroe Monitor reported.
“It scares me to death that that’s where we are right now,” he added.
The Snohomish County jail can hold 1,200 inmates, and the Monroe Monitor reported that last year it held around 950 people each day.
