GOLDSBORO, N.C. -- Police in North Carolina are investigating after a 12-year-old shot at two masked intruders, fatally wounding one of them, after they forced their way into an apartment and shot the boy's grandmother.
Officers responded about 1 a.m. Saturday to a report of a shooting in a residential area. Police arrived at the scene to find a 73-year-old woman suffering from gunshot wound. Shortly after, a man who had also been shot was found at a nearby intersection.
The victim and the suspect were both transported to Wayne UNC Health Care hospital. The man, identified as Khalil Herring, 19, of Goldsboro, died from his injuries.
The investigation revealed two people forced their way into the home, demanded money and shot the woman in the leg. During the robbery, a 12-year-old shot the intruders with a firearm in self-defense, causing them to flee, investigators said. Evidence suggests Herring was one of the two masked intruders and was shot during the incident.
"They came in the house, I open the door, I open it, and they came in there. ... One guy had a gun. They just put me down on the ground," said Randolph Bunn, the woman's son. Bunn is also the great-uncle of the child who fired the gun.
The woman was in the kitchen when the robbers confronted her. "I don't know why they shot her," Bunn said.
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Goldsboro police said charges against the 12-year-old are not anticipated but the investigation is ongoing.
The intruder "just shot his grandma," Bunn said. "He would have shot him too, he would've shot me too. He would've killed us all."
The wounded woman was taken to the local medical center where she will likely be held until Monday, Bunn said.