Edwin "Mac" MacDonald awoke at midnight on January 27, 1996.
'As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw a shadow moving across his room. The 73-year-old horse trainer lived alone in a small home near Williston, Florida. His nearest neighbor was a mile away, and the intruder was moving toward his bed.
MacDonald's mind flashed back to the time 12 years before when he was robbed at his home. Two intruders held a shotgun to his head and stole a large amount of cash. They'd never been caught. Shortly after that robbery, he bought a pistol for self-protection.
Now, standing over MacDonald, the intruder shouted, "Give me some money!"
The homeowner fished for the Taurus .22-caliber revolver beneath his pillow. In the darkness, he was able to make out the features of the stranger, a thin man with long hair who wore black gloves.
The man spoke again. "Where do you keep your money?" he demanded.
When MacDonald didn't answer, the intruder turned and began to rummage through a chest of drawers. He emptied each drawer, dumping the contents on the floor.
MacDonald then jumped out of bed and pointed his gun at the man. "Get out of here!" he yelled.
The intruder hesitated, then darted from the room. MacDonald breathed a sigh of relief. He turned on the light in the hall and planned to walk to his telephone in the kitchen and call the police.
As he stepped from his bedroom, the intruder suddenly appeared before him. He hadn't left after all. The man brandished a lamp now, which MacDonald recognized as a table lamp from his living room.
"Get out of here!" MacDonald repeated.
The intruder heaved the lamp at the homeowner. It missed, and shattered against the wall. MacDonald pointed his gun toward the ceiling and fired. He didn't want to have to kill the man. He just wanted him to leave.
The intruder laughed. "You're shooting blanks," he said. The laughter frightened the homeowner even more, and he feared that the man was on drugs.
The stranger reached into his pocket and pulled out a paring knife. Still laughing, he held it to the light as MacDonald began to back-pedal into his bedroom.
The stranger followed, swishing the knife back and forth. He suddenly slashed at MacDonald, who felt the blade cut his arm.
"Get out or I'll shoot!" MacDonald yelled. The man continued to advance. By now, MacDonald had nowhere else to go as his back was against his bedroom wall. The intrudersuddenly lunged toward him. MacDonald aimed at the man's chest and fired
.The sound shook the little room, then there was silence as MacDonald watched the assailant turn and stumble out of the room. The homeowner cautiously made his way to the kitchen to call the police, but when he picked up the receiver, it was dead.
MacDonald ran outside, jumped into his car, and drove to the Williston Police Department.
At 1:20 a.m., the first police officer arrived at MacDonald's home. He found the intruder lying face-down in the front yard. Rolling him over, the officer discovered two holes in his chest. There was little bleeding, and no pulse. Soon MacDonald's yard was full of police cars, fire-rescue trucks and ambulances. Blue and red lights spun against the house.
Investigators found the scene exactly as the homeowner had described. The telephone line had been cut. The front door window was broken, and a screen had been pulled back. Inside the house, shards of glass from a broken table lamp were scattered across the floor in the hallway.
Police suspected that two accomplices had driven the man to MacDonald's home and waited outside. They soon found that they were correct in their assumption. The suspects chose the isolated home because it appeared to be an easy target. When they saw their accomplice, the home invader, stumble outside and fall to the ground, they fled. The trio was suspected of several other home invasions in the area.
A grand jury convened on March 28, 1996. Following the recommendation of the district attorney, they did not indict MacDonald, citing selfdefense and ruling the case "justifiable homicide:"
The horse trainer was puzzled about how his first shot hit the suspect. He had aimed "high" in an attempt to frighten the intruder so he'd leave the house. Detectives speculated that the gun must have fired as he was raising it to the ceiling, hitting the suspect on the way up.
"It's very disturbing," MacDonald recalled. "It's something you can't explain. It's a feeling I'll probably carry with me the rest of my life. But when they come at you with a knife, it's a little bit hard to look the other way. He had all the opportunity to leave. There was nothing I could do except what I did."
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