ANDERSON, S.C. – Police likely won’t charge a man who shot and killed an
ax-wielding intruder who was in his bedroom.

Lance Myers told investigators he grabbed his gun from his nightstand
after a thump woke him up and he saw a man in dark clothing crawling
into his bedroom, police said. Myers told the intruder to leave twice,
and when the man approached him with the ax he had found in the home
above his head, Myers said he fired, Shore said.

Ernest Leroy Miles, 41, was shot once in the neck from about 3 feet away
around midnight Sunday, Anderson County Coroner Greg Shore said.

Evidence at the scene supports Myers’ story, and under South Carolina
law, a person does not have to retreat when at home and can kill someone
in self-defense if his life is threatened, authorities said.