Sheriff: 15-year-old girl fatally shoots mother’s abusive boyfriend

FOREST CITY, N.C. -- A sheriff’s office says a teenager shot and killed a man who was strangling her mother and threatened to kill everyone in the house.

The Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office said on its Facebook page 46-year-old Steven Kelley was assaulting a woman Aug. 8 at a home in Forest City where they lived with her three children.

Investigators said that during the assault, Kelley threatened to cut the woman’s throat and kill everyone in the house.

The sheriff’s office said the woman’s 12-year-old son got a gun and handed it to his 15-year-old sister, who shot Kelley in the chest.

The sheriff’s office said the teenager’s 16-year-old sister was grazed by a fragmented bullet and treated at a local hospital.

The news release said district attorneys decided not to press charges, calling the case a “justified” shooting.