They heard a crash — their door, kicked out of its frame. Anthony Davis reached for his .45.
He saw the man standing in his living room. Davis thought of his wife, Qiandaye Dunn, in their bedroom. His four kids were in their beds. And he was the only thing standing between them and the intruder.
Davis aimed. The big gun boomed. The intruder fell, got up, and ran.
Later that day, Davis and Dunn saw the man again. This time, say DeKalb police, the lady of the house took aim. She has been charged with aggravated assault.
“There was a predator in our house, man,” Davis told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on on Monday, the events of Feb. 23 still fresh in his mind.
On that day, say police, Demarcus McDowell three times came in contact with Davis and Dunn. The first time, according to police reports, Davis confronted him when McDowell jiggled the door of their apartment in south DeKalb. Their children, ages 2, 8, 15 and 17, were already in bed.
Two hours later, police say, McDowell returned, kicking in the door and confronting an armed Davis. It remains unclear whether the shot fired by Davis hit the intruder. Police found a bullet hole in the hallway wall.
The third encounter, say police, occurred about 12 hours later. The couple saw McDowell, 22, walking near their apartment. In his hand was a stick.
Police say Dunn shot him. Dunn, 33, is out of jail but charged with a criminal offense. The man she is alleged to have wounded remains behind bars, charged with first-degree burglary.
Legal experts say there is a reason authorities charged Dunn but not her husband.
Former DeKalb County District Attorney J. Tom Morgan said when McDowell entered the couple's home, Georgia's so-called castle doctrine law kicked in. That means the presumption is that the intruder is there to do bodily harm and the homeowners can do what they need to protect themselves, including the use of deadly force.
But outside the home, different rules governing self-defense apply, he said.
“You need to ask whether a reasonable person in those circumstances believed serious bodily injury or death was imminent,” Morgan said. “The key word is imminent.”
The events of a week ago are contained in a couple of police reports. In one report, Davis tells police he twice encounters McDowell — first, around midnight, when he hears McDowell tampering with his door. Davis tells the guy to beat it. Then, about 3:30 a.m., Davis tells police, McDowell comes back, kicks in the door and then runs for his life when Davis levels his handgun and shoots.
The second report is McDowell's account of what happened the afternoon of Feb. 23, about 12 hours after police filed the first report. He tells police he is walking outside the apartment complex — the same place where Davis and Dunn live. A black Infiniti slows, stops. A woman gets out. In her hand, McDowell says, is a black-and-silver handgun. Pop-pop-pop! McDowell hits the ground, shot in the left shoulder and the left lower leg. The Infiniti races away.
Police soon made arrests. McDowell, they learned, was a suspect in the earlier break-in — triggered, perhaps, by his interest in a woman who lived next door to Davis and Dunn.
According to Davis, McDowell had been “stalking” their neighbor. Investigators charged McDowell with first-degree burglary. On Monday, the DeKalb Public Defender’s Office assigned him a lawyer; his case has yet to come to trial.
Then they arrested Dunn for the shooting outside the apartment complex. She doesn’t have a lawyer yet, said her husband. After her arrest, said Davis, his wife lost her job.
Monday afternoon, Davis said he was planning to move his family. He needed a rental truck and a couple of sturdy guys to help make that happen.
He also needed to talk, if only briefly, about life’s chance encounters. A man jiggles a door knob. He returns and kicks in the door. A mother of four is charged with his shooting.
“My kids are scared, man,” Davis said. “My wife has lost her job. I’m upset.”
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