The State Attorney’s Office will decide whether a 70-year-old Florida woman will be charged for fatally shooting an alleged intruder who barged into her home in Orange County on Sunday afternoon and refused to leave.
Deputies with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office responded to the home of Virginia Morrison on Sunday near Bentwood St. and Farwell Ave. and found the 38-year-old suspect, Ezequiel Rosario-Torres, on the ground with a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
In a Monday interview with FOX 35 News, Morrison said she attempted to hit the intruder with a broom, but he would swat it away. She said her partner went to get his gun and fired a warning shot, but the intruder refused to leave.
“I fired a warning shot, told him to back off. He just kept coming. Blank look in his face, so I just lowered the gun and shot him,” Morrison told FOX 35 News.
Orlando attorney Mike Panella told reporters that Morrison’s shooting may fall under Florida’s “justifiable use of force” law which offers protections when someone illegally enters your home.
“So if someone comes into your house and you don’t know who they are, Florida automatically says we are presuming you are in fear.”
Panella added that investigators will need to gather all of the facts before a decision is made. Morrison, however, said the ordeal has weighed on her.
“I have feelings,” she said. “I have God in my life. That’s my main thing, wondering if God’s going to forgive me for taking a life. It bothers me.”
