A blessing in defense. (Exercising the Right).

At around 10 p.m. on July 3 1st, Terry Alston and his family returned to their home in Duncan, North Carolina, after attending a barbecue at the home of Mrs. Alston's mother.

Shortly before 10:30 p.m., Mr. Alston and the couple's two children, a daughter, 12, and a son, 16, were in the living room (Mrs. Alston had gone to bed) when there was a knock at the front door. Assuming that it was his wife's sister, Mr. Alston opened the door, but instead of his sister-in-law, there were two male strangers who told him that their car had broken down. They asked if they could use a phone.

Alston could not see a car, so asked where it was. They told him it was farther up the road. They also claimed that they had stopped at two other homes, but that no one had answered. Mr. Alston was puzzled, since, as he told the next day's Dunn Daily Record, "My neighbors around here normally, if someone knocks on their door and asks them for help, they don't hesitate to help."

After Alston handed one of the strangers a cordless phone, the man dialed a number, but claimed that there was no answer. Alston decided to offer them a ride home, but when he asked where they lived, one blurted "Raleigh" as the other said "Sanford."

The homeowner, now seriously concerned about the situation, told the two to wait while he put on his shoes. After shutting and locking the door, he fetched his .38-caliber revolver. When he returned, the men said they were through with the phone, but when Alston cracked the door to retrieve the device, one of the men tried to push the door open while other pulled a gun.

Alston, striving to keep the door shut, opened fire. As he later told Daily Record staff writer Jon Soles, "I went from letting them use my phone, offering to take them [home,] to having to defend me and my family's lives."

As the other man fled, the gunman, suffering from numerous bullet wounds, collapsed on the front door walkway. Alston called the Harnett County Sheriff's Office, but by the time deputies arrived Roger Atterick McRae, 31, was dead. None of the Alstons were harmed.

Mr. Alston's son, who got a good look at the men when he brought them glasses of water, gave deputies a description of the accomplice. Jeremy Attollah McRae, 21, was soon apprehended during a traffic stop, along with Antonio Miguel Johnson, 28, driver of the getaway car. They were charged, respectively, with attempted armed robbery and conspiracy to commit attempted armed robbery.

The Daily Record for August 2nd reported that Mr. Alston had no regrets about defending his family with a gun, though he was sorry that McRae had opted for a course that cost him his life. "Our prayers go out to the guy's family," he told reporter Soles. "Just because he chose to do bad things in life don't mean his family is like that. I know somebody loves him and is upset by this." On the other hand, he added, his next-door neighbor "is an older gentleman and he lives by himself and I would hate for them to have gotten to him."

Alston purchased his revolver following the rape of a 90-year-old woman in the area last year. "I had never even shot the gun before," he told Soles. "I think it is a blessing that we had a gun in the house.