Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog

80-year-old woman shoots mountain lion in her yard

Eighty-year-old Martha Smith admits she was a little nervous when she walked out of her house to shoot a mountain lion snarling at her in her ranch house yard.

It was about 4:30 p.m. last Thursday and the light was already fading when she heard her dog barking outside her house south of Fairburn. Smith looked outside and saw a mountain lion in her garden.

Worried about the dog’s safety, she grabbed her .22 rifle, walked outside and took a shot at the lion but missed.

She went back inside and called 911 but the dispatcher had trouble finding someone from Game, Fish & Parks.

So Smith, who learned to shoot as a girl on the family ranch, grabbed the rifle again, went back outside and walked to within about 20 feet of the mountain lion. She said she was a little nervous. “I didn’t know whether I had a small one or a big one,” Smith said. All I could see was three feet of tail and it was snarling and spitting at me.”

Smith aimed for the cat’s chest where she figured its heart would be and fired. The cat jumped up, ran a short distance and dropped dead.

A GF&P staffer showed up a few hours later and measured the cat, a 90-pound male.

Smith said she was worried whether the young lion’s mother was around.

But the young cat had been fitted with a collar, so GF&P was able to track its mother, which had been shot by a hunter.

“Thank God he was little because I don’t think my .22 would have killed the big one, Smith said.

She says she always keeps her .22 rifle loaded. “What good’s a gun if it’s not loaded?”

Further links:
80-year-old Black Hills woman shoots mountain lion

Labels: animal, SD

MIDLAND - An August shooting in the rural community of Midland was ruled a justifiable homicide by a Haakon County Grand Jury Wednesday, meaning Dallas McKinley Sr. will not be charged with the death of a Rapid City man.

A justifiable homicide is defined as a situation in which a person is defending himself or other persons, inevitably causing the death of another.

The grand jury heard the testimony of 11 witnesses over a period of

several hours and declined to return an indictment, according to the Haakon County State's Attorney's office.

According to a press release from Haakon County State's Attorney Chip Kemnitz, the evidence showed that Harold Lee Cleveland, the 64-year-old man who died, announced that he was going to Midland, intended to commit suicide and that others would die too.

Cleveland apparently entered the Midland home of C.E. and Arlene McKinley on Aug. 12, and "made it clear his intention was to kill them."

The press release stated that Cleveland held the elderly couple hostage at gunpoint for approximately one hour, during which the woman was secretly able to phone her son, Dallas McKinley, who then called 911.

"An adept Pennington County dispatcher confirmed the 911 call by a call to the couple's residence and successfully kept a conversation going through the ordeal by carefully instructing the 86-year-old woman to disguise her responses with yes or no answers and to interject mundane comments, pretending an innocuous conversation with the telephone company or a friend," the release said.

Local law enforcement and South Dakota Highway Patrol units were dispatched to the home, but Cleveland abruptly left the residence before officers had reached their assigned positions, at which time, Dallas McKinley Sr. entered the home from a back entrance and moved his parents to safety.

According to Kemnitz's office, "The victim was then observed to re-enter the residence, again before officers were in a position to stop him, whereupon an armed confrontation between the victim and the couple's son occurred, which resulted in the victim's death."

An anonymous source connected to the victim told the Capital Journal, immediately after the incident occurred, that Cleveland may have gone to the McKinley home for revenge over an investment dispute dating back to the 1980s.

The release from Kemnitz's office confirmed that the only apparent motive for the victim's actions appears to be a financial loss suffered by the victim 15 to 20 years ago in a fraudulent investment transaction managed by another of the victim's sons, not involved in the incident.

Labels: hostage, SD

Business owner shoots teens in Roberts County

A Saturday morning shooting in Roberts County has left two teenagers injured.

According to the Roberts County Sheriff's office, the owner of the Circle K resort at Lake Traverse awoke just before 5 a.m. Saturday to the sound of two juveniles breaking into his business.

The owner, Kenneth Holicky, lives behind the business.

Authorities said Holicky yelled something to the two boys and then went into the house and retrieved his shotgun.

Two shots were fired, and both boys were injured, said the sheriff's office.

One boy was flown to a hospital in Fargo, N.D., and the other's condition was not clear Sunday night as of press time.

The sheriff's office said the boys were aged 14 and 15. It was not clear which one was sent to Fargo.

Labels: business burglary, SD

Roberts County Shooting

Two South Dakota teenagers were shot early Saturday morning after they allegedly broke into a Roberts County business, and police say the man who pulled the trigger owned the business.

It happened at the Circle K Resort on Lake Traverse in northeastern South Dakota about 5:00 am. The Roberts County Sheriff's Office says the store owner lives behind the business.

Police say he woke up and heard one of the boys trying to get into the building. Then the owner reportedly fired at least one shot from a shotgun, hitting both of the teenagers. One of the boys was treated locally, the other was flown to a Fargo hospital. His condition isn't known. No charges have been filed, but the investigation continues.

Labels: business burglary, SD