A man who traveled more than 8,500 miles to confront a teenage girl who had cut off communication with him online was shot in the neck by the girl's mother as he tried to break into their home, police say. Troy George Skinner, 25, traveled from New Zealand to the girl's home state of Virginia—a journey that took two days and involved three flights and a bus—after meeting the 14-year-old on Discord, an app that allows video gamers to chat, the BBC reports. "He was not invited here, he was not expected here, he had been told in the past that the daughter no longer wished to communicate with him," says the local sheriff. Skinner showed up at the girl's home Friday afternoon and knocked; after the girl's mother did not open the door, he saw her inside and yelled that he needed help after hitchhiking to the house. He soon started trying to get inside the house himself, eventually grabbing a brick and trying to break down a glass door, police say in a press release.
The mother warned him she had a gun, and after he allegedly broke through the glass and reached inside to unlock the door, she fired twice. After being shot, he ran away but ultimately collapsed nearby. Police found a knife, pepper spray, and duct tape on him when he was brought into custody, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. "The only inference is that he had very bad intent," the sheriff says. "When I sit back and think about it, I said, 'You’ve got to be kidding me.'" Skinner, who is hospitalized but expected to survive, faces charges of breaking and entering with a deadly weapon and with the intent to commit a serious offense. The FBI is looking into whether federal charges are warranted. A roommate tells the New Zealand Herald Skinner was "quiet" and "rational," but a friend tells WTVR he had been on antipsychotic medication and had been seeing psychiatrists, theorizing the man had "a mental break." (More Virginia stories.)
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