A Texas woman who fatally shot a 14-year-old attempting to break into her house is now being evicted for having a weapon on the property.
A’Leah Wallace of Fort Worth, a single mother of four children, opened fire when the teen was messing with her daughter’s bedroom window at Peppertree Acres Apartments on Dec. 14, according to reports. The juvenile killed was identified as Devin Baker, a middle school student whose family also lived in the complex.
“I was cleaning my living room sweeping my floor, and I heard my window start going back up,” Wallace told Fox 4. “So I went, and I stood in the hallway. And I could see him standing at the window, lifting it up. I just shot.”
Shortly before the shooting, an officer responded to her home after she reached out about a break-in. The official filled out a report before leaving the scene. The perp wasn’t captured.
Wallace was not charged, but the case will be evaluated by a grand jury. The mother said she was “devastated” that the perp was so young, but she didn’t want anyone to harm her daughters — ages 2, 4, 8, and 9, according to the report.
The 25-year-old Wallace explained she obtained a gun after several attempted burglaries at her duplex. After the incident, the apartment management told her that she had 30 days to leave the premises due to having a firearm. Per the outlet, no law prohibits subsidized housing tenants from having a gun.
“The apartments called and told me that I was not supposed to have a gun at all, even though I kept calling them and telling them somebody was breaking in,” Wallace said, adding, “I feel like I’m back at square one. I was there for six years, and now I don’t know what to do.”
Wallace created a GoFundMe to raise money to help her family get back on their feet. It has raised more than $51,000 at the time of publication.
“I was forced to defend myself and my daughters, and this situation would result in the unfortunate death of a young man,” she wrote in the caption. “This situation alone has been very traumatic for my family, but in addition to this, I have been evicted from my apartment for exercising my Second Amendment rights.”
