personally I would lose as much sleep over shooting a intruder whohas an intent on harming me as the intruder would if he succeds in completing his dirty deed.
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Man shoots, kills home intruder
Intruder shooting is Charlotte’s 3rd this year

By ROBERT F. MOORE
Roy Parker was awakened early Friday by the sound of shattering glass, his mother screaming and a family dog that wouldn’t stop barking. Armed with a handgun, he came downstairs and saw an intruder using an iron chair to break through the sunroom window.

Parker, 51, later told a neighbor that he warned the man – firing at least two warning shots – and then shot him in the neck.

“He just kept coming,” Parker said of the man, identified by police as Mitchell Regis of Charlotte.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police found Regis, 24, who was not armed, lying on the back patio of the two-story house in the 6600 block of Summerlin Place. Police would not say how many times Parker fired his gun during the 1:30a.m. confrontation at the residence off Rea Road.

“I’m just devastated that I had to use deadly force to keep someone from killing me,” Parker said Friday afternoon. “It was by far the most dreadful thing I’ve ever had to go through.”

He paused for a few seconds and continued.

“I was left with no choice. May God help anyone else who has to go through this.”

No charges have been filed in Regis’ death. Police said the Mecklenburg district attorney would make that decision.

Under N.C. law, gun owners have the right to use deadly force if they fear that their lives are in danger. Parker said Regis swung the iron chair at him and continued even after he warned him to leave. He described Regis as “mad, furious and deranged.”

The slain man’s mother, Philippa Regis, said her son left his southeast Charlotte residence after climbing through his bathroom window, wearing underwear, a T-shirt and a pair of socks. She said late Friday that she has asked authorities to perform an autopsy to determine whether her son was under the influence of drugs.

“His brother was with him before he left and said he set off his own burglar alarm when he climbed out of the bathroom window,” the mother said. “Then he went around the neighborhood, knocking on doors and asking people to let him in.”

Mitchell Regis lived in the same area as Parker.

His mother said police told her that they found drugs at his home Friday afternoon. Homicide investigators could not be reached for comment.

Philippa Regis said her son had been in Charlotte for about seven years, since moving from St. Lucia in the Caribbean. She said she wasn’t sure if he was employed.

The shooting occurred hours before the National Rifle Association’s convention opened in Charlotte. NRA officials on Friday had little to say about the shooting.

When asked to comment, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said, “Today’s not really the time for the political stuff. We’ll have plenty to say on the Second Amendment tomorrow.”

Neighbors said Parker’s family, which includes his wife and his mother, has lived in the neighborhood for seven or eight years. Police have made psychologists available to them.

Regis twice has been charged with assault and trespassing, according to Mecklenburg County court records. Those cases were dismissed. He was convicted in 1995 for possession of cocaine, records show.

Police are rarely called to Parker’s southeast Charlotte neighborhood. According to police records, they had not been on Parker’s block since Jan.1, 1999.

Police say intruders are rarely killed in Charlotte, though two other such shootings have occurred this year.

Wilson Davis shot and killed an armed intruder March3 at a north Charlotte home.

On New Year’s Day, Juliet Williams, a former Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer, shot and killed an intruder who police said broke into her bail bonding company on North Kings Drive.

Judus Lewis Caudle, the would-be robber, charged Williams with a crowbar, police said. She fired one shot from a .32 caliber handgun and killed Caudle.

Neither Davis nor Williams was charged.

“I know exactly what (Parker) is going through right now,” Williams said. “It’s something that you think about and never live down. You never forget that someone’s life was lost.”

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Staff writer Tim Whitmire contributed to this article. Reach Robert F. Moore at (704) 358-5934 or at [email protected]