An elderly Redding woman says she is still shaken today after killing a 37-year-old Redding man as he tried to break into her home.
The incident happened just before 4 am in the in south Redding.
The 66-year-old Donna Hopper was visibly upset when Action News spoke with her outside her home this morning.
She did not want to talk on camera but says even though she does not know that man, she feels horrible that someone died at her hands.
Just before the shooting happened on Friday morning, next door neighbor Mary Smithart says she was awakened by her dogs.
“The shots but I did not realize they were at her house, they were so faint it sounded like they were up the street...they were just pop pop,” said Smithart.
The shots she heard were fired by her neighbor, 66 year old Donna Hopper.
Hopper was on the phone with 9-1-1 while defending her-self from a man that was trying to break into her home.
“Officers were being updated during the course of their responses as the woman at that address was speaking with the dispatcher,” Redding Police Investigator Sgt. Al Mellon.
Hopper said she was scared for her life when a man tried to break into her home just before 4A.M. She fired two warning shots thru a window, the man left walked around the corner but immediately came back and that’s when she fired the fatal shot.
37 year old Jesse Edward Theis of Redding received a shot to the abdomen and died on scene.
“When officers arrived, they found him in the yard and they rendered first aid and he ended up succumbing to those wounds,” said Redding Police Investigator Jon Poletski
Harper's neighbor Mary was standing by and heard the news.
“Then I heard them say there is a man down so I figured she shot somebody but we did not know he was dead, we did not even know he was dead when they finally let her come over to my house,” said Smithart
Hopper said she never wanted to hurt anyone. She was just acting on instinct.
Action News spoke with Shasta Deputy District Attorney Josh Lowry this morning about the investigation.
He says that through a preliminary investigation, the shooting appears to be justified.
