Elisabeth Cannon, a 47-year-old white woman, has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault for shooting a 15-year-old black boy, Vernon Marcus Jr., in the head outside of her home in Macon, GA. Cannon alleges that Marcus and a group of friends had been throwing rocks at her and her house when she decided to fire several shots from her pistol. She was released from jail late Tuesday after posting $12,400 bond.
As of early Thursday, Marcus was described as being in critical but stable condition, as reported by WMAZ-TV. Speaking to the Macon news station from her home, Cannon said she "had no other choice" but to open fire at the group of teens. It has not yet been confirmed if Marcus threw any rocks.
Cannon said the same group had been throwing rocks at her house for days. She presents a handful of rocks as evidence in the below news clip. On Monday night, she said that she felt especially endangered.
She had been at a neighbor's home when she spotted the alleged group of rock throwers walking down the street. Her 16-year-old daughter had been home alone at the time. Cannon waited until the teens were out of sight before she went home, but she saw them come back while she was checking her daughter's car for potential damage. "I saw them out of the corner of my eye," she recalled. "The barrage of big rocks started, not just at my car and house, but me."
"I started shooting in their direction. They started running," she said. "Maybe it wasn't the best decision to make, but I thought eventually they might hurt us."
Cannon also explained her intention with opening fire at the boys: "I didn't want to hit any in the head. I did not want to kill anybody. But if they wound up getting [hit in] an arm or leg or something -- I just wanted all of this to stop."
In the wake of Cannon's arrest, it has been reported that she made controversial comments about the black residents of her neighborhood while speaking to a local newspaper in 2013. When interviewed by the Macon Telegraph about what concerns her about her neighborhood, she responded, "I have some really good black neighbors, but the good blacks won't get onto the bad blacks."
"You try not to profile but at the same time 99.9% of the crime is going to be, most often, a black male," she continued. "You can tell if they're just out walking for exercise or going to the store or whether they're up to something."
