Mother of three fires her gun after crook kicks down her door: 'I would’ve killed him if I had to\

Ashley Jones heard banging on the front door of her South Carolina home around 6 a.m. Thursday — along with a man's voice.

"He was like, 'This is my house, let me in. I'm not going to hurt you' kind of thing, and I was like, 'What do you want?'" Jones told WSPA-TV.

Image source: WHNS-TV video screenshot

'I have a gun. I will shoot you. Do not come in my house.'

"After I called the police, I grabbed a gun and went to the top of the steps and was like, 'I have a gun. I will shoot you. Do not come in my house,'" she added to WSPA.

Ashley Jones (Image source: WHNS-TV video screenshot)

Indeed, her three young children were asleep in the rooms behind her, the station said — and Jones wasn't about to let anything happen to them.

The man soon tried to enter through the Anderson County home's back door, but it was locked, WSPA said.

Undeterred by no easy way in — not to mention a homeowner who announced she's armed — the man returned to the front door, the station added.

"Finally, he kicked the door in and tried walking toward the inside," Jones told WSPA.

Image source: WHNS-TV video screenshot

"And that's when I shot him," she told the station.

Image source: WHNS-TV video screenshot

Surveillance video showed the moment when the bullet struck the intruder's shoulder, WSPA reported, adding that he tried to run away, but police arrived and took him into custody along with a woman who was with him.

The suspect was hospitalized, and his injuries aren't believed to be life threatening, the station said, adding that Jones doesn't know the man or the woman.

'I would’ve killed him if I had to'

Jones told WHNS-TV she didn't hesitate — and if the man would've continued into her home, she would have fired again: “I would’ve killed him if I had to.”

"Any mother is going to protect her kid any way she can," she said to WSPA. "And that's what I did."

Glad to be a gun owner

Jones told WHNS she was initially hesitant to own a gun but noted to WSPA that she bought one just a few months ago. Then she got firearms training, WHNS said.

And after what happened last week, Jones told WHNS she's glad she made the decision to become a gun owner: "If I didn't have a weapon, I wouldn’t have been able to fight him off."

(H/T: Conservative Review)