A home invasion turned deadly after a resident was armed and ready when they attempted to enter the house in Oklahoma. The would-be teen burglars were all shot dead by the homeowner’s son, now the getaway driver faces three counts of felony murder.
On Monday at 12:30 p.m., Maxwell Cook, 19, Jacob Redfearn, 17, and 16-year-old Jaykob Woodruff broke into the wrong home in a robbery attempt. The three teenagers were wearing masks and gloves and wielding a knife and brass knuckles. The three suspects forced entry into the home through the back door by smashing the glass.
Zach Peters, the son of the homeowner, was asleep at the house, but was woken up when he heard “loud bangs” coming from the back door. The 23-year-old armed himself with an AR-15 rifle and walked towards the back door of the home in Broken Arrow, near Tulsa.
“Upon making entry to the home one of the residents fired a rifle striking all three of the suspects,” a spokesperson for Wagoner County Sheriff’s office said in a statement. “Two of the suspects died inside the home while one was able to run to the driveway before succumbing to his injuries.”
After shooting the intruders, Peters called 911. He was alone at the time of the home invasion.
“I shot two of them, now I am barricaded in my bedroom,” he tells the 911 operator. “I can hear one of them talking.”
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Marie Rodriguez, the getaway driver took off.
Rodriquez called her friend, Ethan Ellison, right after the lethal burglary.
“She called me right after it was done. She called me and she was freaking out. And then she told me that the three boys got shot. … I was like, ‘What? What are you talking about? What do you mean?'” he said. “She said that they thought that the house was empty. … All she knows, is she heard over 12 gun shots so she freaked out and left.”
Hours after the botched robbery attempt, the 21-year-old woman turned herself into police.
Rodriguez told police that she “had previous knowledge of the house and the homeowner” and knew the man who shot the intruders by his first name.
She was arrested on three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree burglary.
Oklahoma law states that someone is to be charged with murder if they take part in a crime where people are killed, even if the person does not have a role in the murder.
Police are currently investigating whether Peters acted in self-defense under the state’s “Stand Your Ground.”
Oklahoma is one of 24 states which have laws allowing citizens to shoot someone if they believe the person threatens their well-being.
“It looks like self-defense from the preliminary investigation, but that’s all speculative,” Wagoner County Deputy Nick Mahoney said. “There’s some speculation as to whether or not that (Stand Your Ground) law applies in this case, the simple answer is I don’t know.”
On Thursday, Rodriguez gave a jailhouse interview to ABC News. She said that the resident “did what, you know, by law he could do to protect his home.”
She said that her crew decided on the crime together but that she chose the home. Rodriguez believed that Peters had money and selected his home to “hit a lick,” or gain a lot of money quickly, police said.
“I know what we did was stupid and wrong,” she told ABC News. “I don’t blame him. … I understand why he did what he did. I mean, I do to an extent.”