Mom arrested for firing gun to save daughter from attack (Video)
Posted by: Jon Ben-Mayor on 10/24/2013 08:37 AM [ Comments ]
A Virginia mother was arrested after she discharged her legally owned weapon into the air to thwart an attack on her teen-aged daughter; a group of boys were repeatedly punching her daughter in the face, the mother believed that this was the only way to stop the attack.
NBC Washington reports that authorities are now searching for the teen who went missing one day after a confrontation involving her mother and a group of boys turned violent, leading her mother to shoot a gun into the air.
Brianna Stewart, 15, was last seen Sunday morning at her grandmother's house. She'd been staying there after the confrontation.
Stewart's mother, Lakisha Gaither, 35, told News4 that her daughter had been involved in an argument with other teens in their Woodbridge, Va., neighborhood Saturday. She said a teenage girl who appeared to be angry with Stewart showed up to the family's home accompanied by a group of boys.
Later that night, Gaither decided to speak with the girl's mother. When she arrived at an apartment complex in the 1900 block of Gable Ridge Turn, the group of boys who had come to her home earlier that day showed up again, she said, and this time, one of the boys punched her daughter in the face.
"He punched her in the left eye, knocking the eyeglass lens out of her glasses, into her face," Gaither said.
After seeing her daughter get punched repeatedly, Gaither said she took things into her own hands.
"Because I do open carry, because I'm a registered gun owner and I open carry everywhere I go, I walked out to the middle of the parking lot where I was away from everybody, not near anybody, the not near the buildings or anything, and I unholstered my weapon, held it straight up in the air and shot straight in the air, one shot, to get him off of my child and to break this group up," Gaither said.
Police were quickly called to the scene, and Gaither, who said she open carries everywhere, was charged with reckless handling of a firearm, a misdemeanor. No one was injured and Gaither was later released from jail, a police report states.
Brianna Stewart, 15, was last seen Sunday morning at her grandmother's house. She'd been staying there after the confrontation.
Stewart's mother, Lakisha Gaither, 35, told News4 that her daughter had been involved in an argument with other teens in their Woodbridge, Va., neighborhood Saturday. She said a teenage girl who appeared to be angry with Stewart showed up to the family's home accompanied by a group of boys.
Later that night, Gaither decided to speak with the girl's mother. When she arrived at an apartment complex in the 1900 block of Gable Ridge Turn, the group of boys who had come to her home earlier that day showed up again, she said, and this time, one of the boys punched her daughter in the face.
"He punched her in the left eye, knocking the eyeglass lens out of her glasses, into her face," Gaither said.
After seeing her daughter get punched repeatedly, Gaither said she took things into her own hands.
"Because I do open carry, because I'm a registered gun owner and I open carry everywhere I go, I walked out to the middle of the parking lot where I was away from everybody, not near anybody, the not near the buildings or anything, and I unholstered my weapon, held it straight up in the air and shot straight in the air, one shot, to get him off of my child and to break this group up," Gaither said.
Police were quickly called to the scene, and Gaither, who said she open carries everywhere, was charged with reckless handling of a firearm, a misdemeanor. No one was injured and Gaither was later released from jail, a police report states.
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