Douglas County, Georgia Sheriff Tim Pounds says his investigators still haven’t figured out why an off-duty Atlanta police officer tried to break into a home early last Friday, but he’s confident that the homeowner who shot and killed Aubree Horton was acting in self-defense.

Doorbell camera footage released by the sheriff’s department on Monday shows a shirtless Horton running across a yard just after 5 a.m., yelling “Jesus save us” and “help me” before he tries to enter the locked front door of a home. Horton threw his weight into the door in an attempt to break it down, shouting “kill me” before he turned and sat down on the front stoop. 

In the video, you can hear the homeowner ask through the door “who are you?”, but the footage released by investigators stops before Horton was able to gain entry to the home. 

The homeowner’s wife, who had left for work moments earlier, received multiple notifications from her Ring doorbell camera and immediately called 911. Inside the home, the husband was alerted by the noise outside. After attempting to communicate with Horton through the door, Horton forcibly rushed into the home when the door was cracked open and knocked the homeowner to the ground. Fearing for his life, the sheriff says the homeowner fired a single shot, fatally wounding Horton. 

Authorities released redacted video footage from the incident to provide further clarity as to what happened, with portions containing sensitive content, such as the sound of the deadly shot, being withheld. 

“We want to emphasize that this was a tragic situation where the homeowner acted in defense of his life and home,” Sheriff Pounds said. “At this time, we are confident that no charges will be filed against the homeowner.”

The sheriff did push back on what he said were “numerous” rumors floating around on social media, including one claiming that the homeowner who shot Horton in self-defense was the head of the APD’s Criminal Investigation Division. Pounds called the rumors “categorically false”, adding that there was no connection between Horton and the homeowner. 

According to Pounds, investigators are working on the theory that the off-duty officer “may have been experiencing a mental health episode or under the influence of narcotics at the time of the incident,” which is a pretty reasonable assumption given Horton’s bizarre behavior in the build-up to his attempt to gain entry into the home. Horton appeared incredibly distraught in the video released by the sheriff’s department, crying out for help at times, but when the homeowner tried to talk to him through the closed door Horton didn’t respond, at least verbally. Instead, when the homeowner cracked open the front door (not a good idea, by the way), the off-duty officer rushed inside and physically assaulted the resident. 

While Horton wasn’t visibly armed in the video released by the sheriff’s department, he still posed a legitimate threat to the homeowner, and I’m glad to see that Pounds and the investigators have at least determined that the armed citizen should not face charges for protecting himself. There are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding Horton’s behavior and why he chose this particular home last Friday, but the most fundamental fact appears beyond doubt: the homeowner had the right to use lethal force when a stranger breached the sanctity of his home and attacked him.