High Point, North Carolina



From a North Carolina paper, the News-Record of January 12, 2004:

HIGH POINT -- Ernest Galloway could have easily killed the man who broke into his property twice in one night.



On his first visit, the intruder tore down doors, broke windows and demolished filing cabinets.



On his second visit, Galloway was waiting inside, rifle in hand.



His friends say he should have pulled the trigger.



"I bet three-fourths of all the people who have talked to me have said, 'You need a bigger gun. You should have shot him when he walked in,' " Galloway says softly. "But when I was standing there looking at him, I couldn't pull the trigger."



It's a potential life-or-death situation to which many people confidently say they know how they'd react. Galloway says he did too, until he found himself in the moment, with no time to spare.



"When I was sitting in the dark, before the guy showed up, I would have said I would have shot him," Galloway says. "When I was facing him, looking at him, it was totally different. I couldn't bring myself to shoot."



But the 77-year-old licensed pilot and Air Force veteran did shoot the intruder, only, he says, after it became clear that his own life might depend on it.



Police charged Terry Wayne Combs, 42, of 109 E. Peachtree Drive, High Point, with two counts of felony breaking and entering and one count of felony larceny. He was treated at High Point Regional Hospital and later released.