Teenage Home Invader Chokes 73-Year-Old Man, Takes Bullet to Head

When a 19-year-old thug choked her 73-year-old fiancé unconscious, 65-year-old Melody Lumpkin retrieved a handgun and ended the fight.

It all happened when Curtis Roys, age 73, reportedly awoke to loud banging sounds outside his home. He found a young man on his back patio, who then forced his way into the house, assaulted the homeowner “with a blunt object,” and proceeded to choke the older man.

Witnessing this, Melody apparently did the wrong thing before she did the right thing: She “pled several times for the man to stop” choking her man. When he ignored her, she went and got a handgun — but she still did not end the fight.

Instead, she “fired a warning shot.”

That was foolish, in my opinion. If you need to fire a handgun for defense, fire it at the threat with the intention of ending the altercation ASAP. But there’s no doubt that she’d seen many movies and TV shows in which the “warning shot” was magically effective. Here in the real world, she watched as the miscreant continued to choke her now-unconscious fiancé.

And then she acted decisively. She shot the bad guy in the head.

When Curtis regained consciousness, 911 was called. The crook was treated and taken to a hospital and later pronounced dead.

Thank goodness Melody had access to a loaded handgun and the knowledge, ability, and will to use it.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.