After a Coweta County man found a stranger inside his 14-year-old daughter’s bedroom, he took matters into his own hands to protect his family, according to investigators.
He punched, pistol-whipped and shot at the alleged invader, who was attempting to run away, according to authorities. In the end, both the protective father and the stranger face charges.
Ismael Casillas Padilla Sr., 41, was charged with aggravated assault and aggravated battery for attacking 20-year-old Keywontrezes Humphries, who faces a child molestation charge, according to the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office.
The incident, which took place on the Fourth of July, sparked controversy surrounding Padilla’s arrest. In a sign of support for the father, hundreds of people tried to donate more than $10,000 to Padilla through a GoFundMe page.
However, that page has since been deleted because it violated the platform’s terms of service, according to a GoFundMe spokeswoman. The specific violation was not specified. All donations were refunded.
While investigators sympathize with the father, they said he went too far by chasing a man who was no longer an immediate threat to his family’s safety, according to the sheriff’s office.
The ordeal began when Padilla was told by a neighbor that a strange vehicle was blocking her driveway, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. The home’s location within unincorporated Coweta County was not disclosed.
When he checked out the vehicle, he noticed that his daughter’s bedroom window was open. When he went into the room to investigate, he found Humphries standing at the foot of the bed, the release said.
A struggle ensued, which led Humphries to jump through the already open window and try to run away, the release said. Padilla asked for his wife to get his gun and he gave chase.
He was able to catch Humphries, which is when he struck the man with his gun several times, knocking out a few of his teeth, the release said. Padilla allegedly told the man that he would kill him and fired several shots at him as he ran to his vehicle and drove away.
Humphries drove to his hometown of Eatonton, where he went to Putnam County General Hospital, the release said. He later told investigators that he met a girl online and believed she was 18 years old, which led him to drive to her home.
Both men were arrested and later bonded out of the Coweta County jail, according to the sheriff’s office. No other information on the incident was released.
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