According to WESH, Leesburg police were dispatched at approximately 4:43 a.m. following a report that a woman was attempting to enter a home.
The homeowner reportedly told investigators that he ordered the woman to leave the property and warned her that he was armed.
She allegedly continued trying to gain entry.
At some point during the confrontation, according to the homeowner’s account reported by local media, he fired a handgun through the door. The gunfire shattered a window in or near the door.
But the encounter allegedly did not stop there.
The woman reportedly reached through the newly broken window and attempted to unlock or open the door from the inside.
The homeowner then fired again.
Conley was pronounced dead at the scene.
Exactly what happened during every moment of the confrontation remains under investigation, and authorities have not announced that the homeowner will face criminal charges.
WESH reported that the review of the shooting could take weeks or potentially months.
Police publicly identified the woman as Conley the following day, according to WOFL.
Investigators said Conley apparently lived only a few blocks from the residence where she was killed. Police also said she did not know the people who lived inside the home, leaving one of the biggest questions in the case unanswered: Why was she allegedly trying to get inside?
According to information attributed to Conley’s roommate, she had been drinking before the incident and left her residence while angry over a personal matter.
Those circumstances could eventually help investigators reconstruct the events leading up to the shooting, but they do not by themselves establish what Conley intended to do when she arrived at the other residence.
Florida Law Could Be Central to the Investigation
The case immediately raises questions about Florida’s self-defense laws, particularly the protections provided to people confronted by an unlawful and forceful entry into their homes.
Florida law states that “a person who is in a dwelling or residence in which the person has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground.”
The law also provides circumstances in which deadly force may be justified.
A resident can use deadly force “if he or she reasonably believes that using or threatening to use such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another
