‘If you take one more step, I'll kill you’: Home intruder charges at mother — but she's better armed

Laura Williams told KWTX-TV she was awakened Tuesday morning by a ringing doorbell at her home outside of Mexia, Texas.

"I went to the door and just kind of opened it, and there was an older man standing at my front door with a shovel, and he asked for a lady's name, and I said, 'There's no one here by that name. I'm sorry. You're at the wrong house. She doesn't live here,'" Williams told the station.

Williams' home (Image source: YouTube screenshot)

The man left, but Williams told KWTX she felt uncomfortable.

So she told the station she looked through the blinds of her bedroom window to see if the man had indeed departed — but no such luck.

"I looked out, and he was standing at the opening of the woods with a shovel still in his hand, and he kept looking back and looking, I thought, 'Nope, this is not going to go down like this,'" Williams recalled to KWTX.

What actions did Williams take?

Williams told the station she ran to the other side of her house where her 17-year-old daughter Hannah was asleep.

"I woke her up, and I said, 'Run to my bedroom, get the dogs and let's go' because that's where we keep our guns in our house," Williams added to KWTX.

Laura Williams (Image source: YouTube screenshot)

And sure enough, as soon as Williams and her daughter shut the bedroom door, she told the station the man was kicking in their front door and hitting it with the shovel.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

How did Williams gain the upper hand?

Williams removed her pistol from a bedside table drawer and confronted the man in the living room while her daughter called 911, KWTX reported.

"I had time to grab the revolver and come out the door," Williams recalled to the station. "So when he came in, the shovel was up on his shoulder — he was headed straight toward us."

But not for long.

Williams told KWTX she aimed her gun at the man and said, "If you take one more step, I'll kill you."

Image source: YouTube screenshot

How did the intruder react?

The man stopped, mumbled some words, and turned to leave, the station reported — but turned back with a curious declaration.

"He said, 'Well, all y'all need to know is y'all need to leave me the F alone,'" Williams recalled to KWTX. "And I said, 'I don't even know you, but get out of my house.'" She said she watched the man walk into the woods.

What happened to the intruder?

Deputies arrived 14 minutes later, flooded the area and found the man in a nearby trailer park, the station said.

Allen Tompkins, 47, was charged with burglary of a habitation and was being held in jail on a $20,000 bond, KWTX reported.

Allen Tomkins (Image source: YouTube screenshot)

How are Williams and her daughter doing now that the incident is over?

"I felt really scared, and like my adrenaline was pumping so I don't really remember a lot of it," Williams' daughter Hannah told the station. "But I'm not sleeping well at all."

Image source: YouTube screenshot

And even though Williams once worked as a police officer, she told KWTX the confrontation left her rattled as well.

"My husband says I'm having nightmares calling [Hannah's] name trying to make sure she's safe," she told the station. "As much as I'd hate to say I killed somebody, I wished I would've so that I could sleep at night knowing that he's not going to come back."

Williams said she has no plans to move as the land she lives on has been in her family for generations, KWTX said.

(H/T: Bearing Arms)