Cameras caught the distressing moment when a North Carolina man pointed a gun at a homeowner through one of the home’s windows late Saturday night, WLOS reported.
Just after 11 p.m. the homeowner, Preston McHone, saw an intruder in camouflage, later identified as Tyler Messer, measuring a weapon at him through his home’s backdoor window, according to WLOS.
“As I’m folding one towel, I have my phone lying in front of me and I see an alert that there’s some motion on the back,” McHone said. “So, I just turn around and yell, ‘Billy, there’s somebody at our back door with a gun.'” (RELATED: Video Shows Homeowner In LA Confronting Masked Intruders In Terrifying Ambush)
A bone-chilling incident was caught on camera in McDowell County on Saturday night. https://t.co/ODXO7Ywj45
— WLOS (@WLOS_13) March 27, 2024
McHone and his partner, Billy Brooks, thought it might be the police with an airsoft gun, WLOS reported.
But the video shows a man with what appears to be an automatic weapon pointed at McHone. When the intruder pulls the trigger, a click can be heard on the video as the gun apparently misfires and the man quickly runs away.
“As he pulls the trigger, he turns and, in that short turn, he’s realizing it didn’t go off,” McHone said.
After Messer fled, the couple sheltered in their home until authorities arrived, WLOS reported.
Police tracked down and arrested Messer the next day, charging him with assault by pointing a gun, trespassing, and stalking, according to WLOS.
Court documents obtained by WLOS confirm that Messer had been stalking the couple and that the defendant was in a “delusional” state, the outlet reported.
“Defendant is mentally ill,” notes on a McDowell County Magistrate Bail Explanation Form revealed. “Defendant stated to family that he was going to rid the world of sin.”
Brooks and McHone told WLOS that Messer, who they did not know, had come to their home three times in one year apparently looking for his father.
Messer allegedly believed that Brooks and McHone had kidnapped his dad and were “running a child sex ring out of our house and that’s what he had obsessed on,” Brooks told WLOS.
The McDowell County Sheriff’s Office said that it expects more charges against Messer will be filed, according to WLOS.