GOOCHLAND, Va. (AP) — A New Zealand man who traveled to the U.S. home of a 14-year-old girl he had communicated with online was shot by the girl’s mother, a sheriff said Monday.
Troy George Skinner, 25, was shot Friday after he allegedly smashed a glass door and tried to enter the home in Goochland, Virginia, said sheriff James Agnew.
The Goochland County sheriff said Skinner bought a knife and duct tape after arriving in the U.S. The sheriff also said the girl’s mother saw a man trying to enter her home, warned him several times she had a gun, then fired after he broke the glass on the second door he tried to open.
Skinner was struck in the neck and remains hospitalized, according to authorities.
“All I can say is the manner in which he attempted to enter that home in the face of a firearm pointed at him and the implements we recovered from him — the only inference is that he had very bad intent,” Agnew said.
Agnew said Skinner will be charged with breaking and entering with a deadly weapon with the intent to commit a serious crime.
It wasn’t immediately known if Skinner has an attorney. His hometown in New Zealand was not given by authorities.
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