GEORGIA - March 19, 2008 - Eighty-one-year-old Robert Jenkins said he loaded his wife's handgun and tried to scare off a burglar in his Tucker home, but he fired when the intruder rushed him, according to a family friend.

DeKalb police said the shooting was justified, and Jenkins will not be charged in the death of the suspect, a man possibly in his 20s who had not been identified Wednesday.

"He defended his home, defended his wife," police spokesman J.T. Ware said. "He did what everybody would hope to do in a situation like that."

Jenkins was being treated at a hospital Wednesday for a minor gunshot wound. His 78-year-old wife was unharmed.

Ed. Note: Another case among many where an armed citizen successfully defended his family and property from a criminal.