OR: Mother stops crazed attacker, protects children

[seamusTX]

REDMOND, Ore. — A man was shot and killed by his ex-wife after he broke into her house in Redmond and tried to attack her with an “improvised weapon” as she defended her children, authorities said.

Patrick S. Hankins, 41, of Bend, was fatally shot Wednesday night, the Deschutes County sheriff’s office said.

His ex-wife, Karen L. Hankins, 51, was not charged in the death, said sheriff’s Capt. Marc Mills.

Sheriff’s deputies said the woman called 911 dispatchers just before 11 p.m. to report her ex-husband was outside her home, refusing to leave.

As she spoke on the phone with dispatchers, the man broke a kitchen window and entered the home.

Deputies said the woman had armed herself with a handgun and moved her 8- and 12-year-old children into the bathroom as the man attempted to assault her.

“The woman shot the intruder, then fled the residence with her children, to the safety of a neighbor’s house,” Mills said.

Deputies arrived within five minutes of the call and, aided by Redmond police, entered the home and found Patrick Hankins dead inside, Mills said.

KTVZ-TV in Bend reported that county court records show the couple’s divorce was finalized in August, about three months after she sought a restraining order against her then-husband.

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- Jim