An elderly man killed a home intruder and later faced off with family of the deceased, KDFW/FOX 4 reported on Monday, February 18.

The man fired on 33-year-old intruder Deyfon Pipkins “at least once,” the report stated.

Dallas police sergeant Calvin Johnson said the homeowner was protected by the Castle Doctrine, a law that “means they don’t actually have to retreat once someone comes in their home.”

“You have the option of using deadly force if you believe your life is in danger,” Johnson added.

Pipkins’ family didn’t see it that way. The report said that “some” relatives showed up outside the house after being notified of the assailant’s death.

Lakesha Thompson, Pipkins’ sister-in-law, believed “he [the homeowner] could have used a warning,” adding that “he could have let him know that he did have a gun on his property and he would use it in self-defense.”

(The Miami dad who was killed by home invaders on February 13 while protecting his 11-year-old daughter might disagree, as could the Titusville, Florida, woman pistol whipped by three suspects in January.)

Johnson said evidence will be turned over to a grand jury for investigation and that no charges have been issued against the homeowner at this time.

The shooting added yet another story into the growing gun control debate raging around the United States. Are guns necessary deterrents to violent crime, or do they do more harm than good?

That’s a question The Dallas Morning News tried to statistically answer earlier this month only to find that culling trustworthy stats is more difficult than it looks.

As an example, a statistic from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which attempted to tabulate gunshot injuries for 2011, found that “between 36,708 and 111,058” injuries were reported, a swing in opinion of around 300 percent.

The lesson: Gun control statistics are not an exact science, and they can be used to say pretty much whatever you want.

However, breaking in to homes is not an exact science either, a fact which Pipkins and his family are now painfully aware.

Do you feel justice was served in the case mentioned above?

[Image via Flickr Creative Commons]