North Carolina Children Fatally Shoot Mom’s Boyfriend As He Choked Her And Threatened To Kill Entire Family
Two children in North Carolina fatally shot their mother’s boyfriend as he choked her and threatened to kill the entire family, police say.
The Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page said that 46-year-old Steven Kelley was strangling girlfriend Chandra Nierman and threatening to kill everyone in the home when the woman’s children took action. Chandra’s 12-year-old son retrieved a gun and her 15-year-old daughter fired at the boyfriend, hitting him twice in the chest.
Police arrived at the home to find Kelley dead from the gunshot wounds.
As police noted, Kelley had a history of domestic violence arrests and had assaulted Nierman just days before the attack that led to his death. He also fired a gun in the home and terrorized the family, the police report noted.
“The investigation further revealed that the deceased male, who had multiple firearms in the house and frequently carried one on his person, was a convicted felon and had two active domestic violence protection orders against him from two different women in Indiana and Ohio, although no domestic violence or assaults had been reported to law enforcement locally prior to the fatal shooting,” the report noted. “The deceased male has been positively identified as Steven Kelley, originally from Indiana.”
Chandra Nierman’s 16-year-old daughter was grazed by a bullet during the shooting, but was released from the hospital after being treated. Chandra herself was treated for “significant bruises and contusions,” police noted.
The man’s death came amid another high-profile case of an abuser being killed. Cyntoia Brown, who was sentenced to life in prison for the 2004 fatal shooting of a man named Johnny Allen, has seen worldwide attention as supporters rally to have her sentence overturned. As the New York Post noted, Brown was a runaway forced into prostitution and sold to Allen. Brown said she was drugged and raped, and shot the Nashville realtor out of fear that he would kill her.
Brown’s case has attracted the attention of a number of celebrities, including singer Rihanna and Kim Kardashian, who have each posted about details of her case and shared the hashtag #FreeCyntoiaBrown. Had Brown gone to trial today, she would have been treated as a child human trafficking victim, the New York Post noted, but that law was not passed until seven years after her conviction.
— RuledbyId (@ruledbyid1) August 17, 2018
Police said the children who shot and killed Steven Kelley will not face charges. Their names have not been released.
