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The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
A homeowner in Chattanooga is facing charges after allegedly shooting a homeless man who was in her backyard. The incident happened around 4:30 a.m. Monday morning.
Priscilla Teem, 34, told officers that she went to check things out after hearing a noise in her backyard.
It was then that she saw a 38-year-old man and demanded that he get off of her property.
According to the Chattanooga Police Department press release, Teem fired a warning shot at the man to leave the yard, striking him in the ankle.
WTVC first reported that officers charged Teem with aggravated assault, saying that at the time of the shooting, the man posed “no imminent threat”.
The man told officers he was “walking to an area near 13th Avenue” to sleep for the night.
The report says that the younger female shot him in the foot as he turned to walk away.
The man told officers that he heard the older woman tell the younger woman, “I hope you didn’t shoot him.”
Teem was also interviewed. She told officers that when she woke up to her dogs barking, she checked her home cameras. There she saw the victim in her back driveway “carrying a tote full of items”, which she personally believed were stolen.
Teem went outside, along with her mother. “She advised she verbally told the man to leave prior to firing a single ‘warning shot’ to scare him off,” according to reports.
Teem told officers she had not meant to hit the victim when firing the warning shot. The man was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
6 Responses
Excuse me, but how did the women know the man “posed no imminent threat” He’s on the property, that’s called trespassing, he’s carrying a big bundle and it’s 4:30 in the morning. Seems to me the man is lucky to be alive.
You’d shoot Santa Claus, wouldn’t you?!
How was she to know this man was an innocent person ? Or was he really ? I think I would have done the same thing as this woman had I found who knows what in my backyard at such a time in the morning .
The vagrant was on her property so he should be charged for trespassing or planning a burglary or something to that effect . If he hadn’t been on the woman’s property at such a time in the first place he wouldn’t have been shot . I mean HELLO !!!!
Drop charges and help preserve our right to defend ourselves and our property !!!
They wouldn’t want me on the jury.
Agree with everyone, what the hell was he doing on her property at that hour? Anyone using the cover of darkness to be on PRIVATE PROPERTY can’t be just out for a harmless moonlight nature walk, he could have been a threat, why take chances? Vagrants, this is Tennessee, don’t be stupid, most people are packing and don’t take kindly to people snooping around on their private property.
Well first off, don’t talk to the police. Second off, there is no such thing as a warning shot. A warning shot, by nature, sends the signal to the justice system that the threat wasn’t imminent. We don’t fire warning shots, and we don’t draw unless we are very ready to fire. If you draw on someone and they immediately stop their dangerous behavior, and you do not shoot, well they are very lucky.
This woman was ignorant – we need to teach people about defensive use of guns. We do not shoot warning shots. We do draw down and then usually shoot when there is a real threat. I wouldn’t have minded if the woman drew and did not shoot. But if she told the police it was a warning shot, then yeah she’s in trouble bigtime. Hopefully others learn from this…