North Carolina Woman Shoots Man Who Kicked Down Airbnb Door at 3 A.M., Hours After Deputies Answered a Domestic Call Involving Him

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WEST JEFFERSON, NC — A woman shot a man who kicked down the door of an Airbnb in Ashe County around 3 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13. It happened hours after deputies responded to a domestic dispute involving the same man and his wife, according to the Ashe County Sheriff’s Office.

The sheriff’s office account, as reported by WataugaOnline.com, lays out a night that started with a 911 call the evening before.

At about 7:45 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 12, the Ashe County Dispatch Center took a call from an out-of-town woman. She said she and her husband were in a domestic dispute. Deputies were already helping the West Jefferson Police Department with a shooting investigation from earlier that afternoon. Once on scene, deputies found the woman in the woods behind the home and arranged for her to be taken out of the county with family.

It was a heavy night for the county’s 911 center. Dispatchers logged 35 calls for service between 7 and 8:30 p.m. while training two new dispatchers, the sheriff’s office said. The Jefferson Police Department, West Jefferson Police Department, N.C. SBI and N.C. Highway Patrol all pitched in during that stretch.

Then, at 3 a.m., the phone rang again. A woman told dispatchers a man had kicked down the door to their Airbnb. He came inside. She shot him.

The Ashe County Sheriff’s Office, Ashe Medics, West Jefferson police and Jefferson police all responded to Sunset Ridge Road. The man was identified as Icon Christen, the same suspect in the earlier domestic dispute involving his wife. The account does not identify the woman who fired or say how she was connected to Christen.

Christen was taken to Ashe Memorial Hospital and then flown to Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem. He was later released.

A door coming down at 3 a.m. gives you no warm-up. You are asleep or close to it, in a place that is not your own, and the threat is already through the doorway before your mind catches up. Deputies had spent that evening stretched across a shooting investigation and a domestic call. Help was a phone call away, but help still has to drive there. This is why the mindset and the firearm travel with you. A rental door is a lock, not a plan.

Sheriff Howell addressed the shooting in the department’s statement.

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“I am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and the right to protect yourself and your family. No one should have to fear for their safety inside their own home. When someone forcibly enters an occupied residence, they create a dangerous situation with potentially serious consequences. I will always stand behind the right to lawful self-defense. Our goal will always be to keep Ashe County a safe place to live, work, and raise a family,” Howell said.

The sheriff’s office obtained warrants, and Christen, 33, of Long Branch, New Jersey, was arrested on Oct. 21 and booked into the Ashe County Detention Center under no bond. He is charged with felony first-degree burglary and assault on a female. The charges are allegations, and he is presumed innocent unless convicted. The sheriff’s office account does not mention any charges against the woman who fired, and no charging decision has been announced.

Read the original story: North Carolina Woman Shoots Man Who Kicked Down Airbnb Door at 3 A.M., Hours After Deputies Answered a Domestic Call Involving Him