Woman says she's alive because she bought a gun rather than counting on a protection order to stop her violent ex

The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that a Columbus woman is alive today because she took steps to protect herself in the event that her estranged boyfriend chose to ignore the protection order that was supposed to keep him away from her and their 7-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter.

From the article:

The woman's hands were shaking, but she spoke in a calm voice as she stood outside the Far East Side apartment where 27-year-old Quentin L. Walker was shot and killed early yesterday.

"I'm the one who this happened to," she said, identifying herself only as Ashley.

She said that Walker, her estranged boyfriend and the father of her two children, broke into her apartment in the middle of the night and came at her with a crowbar in his hand.

She shot and killed him, using the gun she'd bought this year, Ashley said. She had feared that the protection order that was supposed to keep him away from her and their 7-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter would not be enough.

Ashley said police took her Downtown for questioning and, after she told her story, brought her home to her apartment at 371 Heatherbridge Lane in the Stonebridge Apartments.

"It was self-defense," she said, adding that Walker had a history of violence. "I'm glad that I'm here."

Columbus police were called to the apartment about 4:30 a.m. yesterday, and Walker was pronounced dead 10 minutes later.

A news release said the case will be presented to a grand jury.

Under Ohio's Castle Doctrine law, if someone unlawfully enters an occupied home or temporary habitation, or occupied car, citizens have an initial presumption that they may act in self defense, and will not be second-guessed by the State.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Vice Chairman.