When a New Zealand man traveled across the globe to Virginia, he planned to find the 14-year-old girl he’d met online.
Instead, he found her mother — armed with a .22-caliber handgun.
According to Goochland County Sheriff Jim Agnew, 25-year-old Troy Skinner refused to listen to those who warned him not to come to the girl’s home.
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After Skinner met the young girl on a gaming website and chatted with her for a few months, she tried to cut off contact with him but to no avail.
“He was not invited here, he was not expected here, he had been told in the past that the daughter no longer wished to communicate with him,” Sheriff Agnew told WTVR.
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That wasn’t the last time Skinner wouldn’t heed an important warning.
On Friday, Skinner showed up at the girl’s family home and refused to leave even after the girl’s mother threatened to call the police.
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“Skinner soon got violent, deputies said: He tried using a brick to force his way into the home through the back basement door. That’s when the mother warned him that she had a handgun on her, according to the sheriff’s office,” Miami Herald reported.
Even then, Skinner was undeterred.
He left the basement area, went up the stairs to the home’s deck, picked up a concrete slab and threw it through the glass door.
Skinner then reached his arm through the door to open it.
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At that point, the Virginia mom had had enough — she grabbed her handgun and shot Skinner twice, hitting him in the neck.
That seemed to do the trick: Skinner finally ran away from the home and made it to a neighbor’s yard, where deputies found him.
According to authorities, Skinner had a knife, pepper spray and duct tape with him.
Who knows the terrible things Skinner intended to do to that girl or to her family.
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What we do know is that one protective mother had a gun and she wasn’t afraid to use it — and that made all the difference.
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