"For 10 minutes and 20 seconds, Donna Jackson remained calm..."
1. When seconds matter, the police are only a little more than 10 minutes away.
"But when he threw a table through her sliding glass patio door ... The phone drops, and there’s a single shot from a 16-gauge shotgun."
2. Never bring a table to a gun fight.
I don't think this criminal was all there mentally, but I also don't think that matters. This woman would have been just as dead (or raped) if she'd allowed this psycho in as if she had allowed someone sane but equally violent to break into her home.
Stories indicate the intruder was on drugs and had a history of DUIs.
Only one time in my life did I ever find the need to defend myself with a gun. Unlike the courageous Donna Jackson, I didn’t need to pull the trigger. The laser on the trusty S&W .357 did the trick and the perp dropped face down spread-eagle pleading for his life.
You gotta do what you gotta do.