North Carolina Boy And His Machete Stopped A Home Invader

A home robbery attempt in North Carolina was thwarted due to the efforts of an 11-year-old boy, his self-defense training and a machete.

The robbery attempt occurred Friday morning while Braydon Smith was alone at his family’s home in Mebane, North Carolina. Smith was on the phone with his mother when an unknown car pulled into the driveway. A woman knocked on the door, while a man broke a window and entered the house.

The alleged suspect, identified as 19-year-old Jataveon Dashawn Hall, reportedly found Smith and then grabbed a pellet gun and forced him into a closet.

“I knew that it wasn't loaded so I just sat down and got in my closet like he told me to,” Smith told WTVD, an ABC affiliate in Durham. “Then he went into the living room to grab my phone to make sure I didn't call 911 or anything.”

While Hall searched the house, Smith was able to grab his machete off the wall and strike Hall in the back of the head. Hall then struck Smith in the stomach and head before trying to make off with a Playstation and TV, but couldn’t because of the bleeding.

Smith explained that he had originally bought the machete to help cut down trees and not as a self-defense weapon. However, the family had gone through a similar experience several years earlier when their home was ransacked, prompting his parents to teach their kids self-defense.

Hall was treated for his wound at a local hospital before escaping when he realized police were looking for him. He was later arrested by Orange County Sheriff's deputies at his mother’s apartment and is being held at Orange County Detention Center. Hall is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday and is facing charges of breaking and entering, second-degree kidnapping, interfering with emergency communications and assault on a child under 12.