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Cops: Dad Mistakes Teen Daughter for Intruder, Kills Her

Girl was in the garage and security system alarm went off
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 31, 2021 1:44 AM CST
Father Mistakes Teen Daughter for Intruder, Kills Her: Cops
Stock photo.   (Getty Images / Evgen_Prozhyrko)

Around 4:30am Wednesday, the security system alarm at a Columbus, Ohio, home was set off. Police say a man in the house then shot a person in the garage, whom he believed was breaking in—only to find out it was his own 16-year-old daughter. The high school junior died at a nearby hospital an hour later, the Columbus Dispatch reports. During the more than 8-minute-long 911 call, the parents of Janae Hairston can be heard, distraught, wondering what the teen had been doing in the garage and pleading with her to wake up, NBC News reports.

"My husband made a mistake and shot her because he thought she was an intruder," the mother says on the call. "She was in our garage and my husband just didn’t know what was going on. Oh, my God." No charges have been filed. The case was forwarded to the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office for review, as is standard policy. This year was the deadliest in the history of the city of Columbus, with 202 homicides. Hairston's death is the seventh homicide in a week, and the third in three days, in the city. (The tragedy comes just days after North Carolina police officer allegedly accidentally shot his 15-year-old son in the head.)

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