Alabama Homeowner Shoots and Kills 32-Year-Old Woman Who Kicked In His Back Door at 1 P.M. as Her Family Insists She Was Not a Threat
A Carbon Hill, Alabama homeowner shot and killed 32-year-old Kenya Pugh on Wednesday after he reported she and an accomplice, identified as Dustin Tucker, kicked in his back door. Police Chief Paul Anderson said the homeowner grabbed his gun and fired when the door gave way. Tucker fled but agreed to speak with police Friday; no charges have been reported against either man.
Pugh’s family disputes the shooting, claiming she was unarmed and shot in the back, posing no threat. Police have not confirmed where she was struck. Anderson suggested drugs may have motivated the break-in, noting both individuals had a history of drug involvement. The homeowner has not been publicly identified.
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CARBON HILL, AL — A Carbon Hill homeowner shot and killed a 32-year-old woman Wednesday afternoon after he reported that she and a man kicked in his back door, according to Carbon Hill Police Chief Paul Anderson. The man with her drove off, and police spent the next day looking for him.
The homeowner told police that Kenya Pugh and an accomplice kicked in the back door of his home in the 100 block of Northwest Seventh Avenue shortly before 1 p.m., as reported by WVTM 13. “He heard the commotion and grabbed his gun. The back door came open. He opened fire,” Anderson said.
Pugh was killed. Several of the rounds also struck a neighbor’s house and car. Nobody else was reported hurt, but that detail matters for anyone who keeps a gun for home defense. Rounds that miss keep going, and in a small town the next house is not far away. Knowing what is beyond your target is part of the job, even when your door is coming off its hinges.
Police identified the man they say was with Pugh as 38-year-old Dustin Tucker. Anderson said Tucker left the scene in a Ford pickup truck. The chief said Tucker later called him and agreed to come in Friday for questioning. The reporting does not indicate that Tucker has been charged, and it does not mention any charging decision regarding the homeowner.
Pugh’s family disputes the shooting. Her aunt and grandmother told the station she was shot in the back. “I don’t feel like she was a threat. Her back was turned. She didn’t have to be shot. She had no weapons,” they said. “I just want justice for her kids. She has two kids. I just need some answers.”
I understand a grieving family asking those questions. Two kids lost their mother, and that is a tragedy no matter what led up to it. But I cannot get on board with the idea that she was not a threat. Kicking in someone’s back door in the middle of the day, with a partner beside you, is about as threatening as it gets for the person on the other side of that door. He did not know who was coming through, how many, or what they were carrying. All he had was the sound of his own door giving way and a second or two to act on it.
The claim that she was hit in the back comes from the family, not from police. Anderson has not released where Pugh was struck or what she was doing when the shots were fired. Even if she was hit in the back, that alone does not make this a bad shoot. A door coming open, a gun coming up, and a body turning toward a partner or away from the noise can all happen inside the same fraction of a second. Where a round lands says very little about where the threat was when the trigger broke. That is a question for investigators working from the physical evidence, not one that gets settled by an entry wound.
Anderson said he believes drugs played a role. “Drugs and theft go hand in hand. These two individuals have a drug past,” he said, adding that he believes the case leads back to drugs, either wanting them or wanting money for them. Pugh’s grandmother said addiction takes hold of people and leaves them struggling to break free.
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Maybe this was about drugs. Maybe it was not. It does not change anything for the man inside that house. Someone kicked in his door, and he treated it as the threat it was. The surest way to avoid being shot by a homeowner is to never kick in his door.
Tucker is due at the Carbon Hill Police Department Friday to answer questions. The homeowner has not been publicly identified.
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