Stranger breaks into home in quiet neighborhood, Veteran dad opens fire to protect family

A Georgia thug had to learn the hard way this week that breaking into the home of a military veteran and father is never a wise decision.

The ordeal started around 11:30 pm on Monday in Jackson, where 38-year-old Justin Couch’s 15-year-old son was awoken by the sound of his window shattering, as exclusively reported by the Daily Mail.

The boy then ran to Couch’s room to wake him up and alert him to what had happened. Couch immediately jumped into action.

“I’ve got to protect my kids, that was all that was in my mind,” he recalled to the Daily Mail. “In that moment, I was terrified, I’m going to be honest with you.”

Couch ran to his son’s bedroom and opened fire. He missed, but the shot nevertheless prompted the suspect, later identified as Abdil Aquil, to fall back out of the window.

Abdil Aquil broke into kids’ bedroom, then their dad came running https://t.co/RMszyfDCE5 via @MailOnline

— Tom Quiggin (@TomTSEC) April 16, 2025

But Aquil wasn’t done.

“He starts yelling at me, telling me he’s going to kill me and ‘I’m going to beat your ass’ and then he took off and started lunging towards my front door,” Couch recalled.

“I came around and he pushed my [bay] window so hard and with so much force that the entire casing of the window blew in and it flew about five feet, all the way down the basement stairs,” he added.

Couch’s 10-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son were beside him the whole time. His wife, meanwhile, had run off to find their oldest son.

“The whole time they are beside me and I’m pointing my gun,” Couch recalled. “He stepped back and then his hands went up and he shouted, ‘come on motherf—er.’ He was about three-quarters in the house, and he was shouting, ‘I’m going to kill you,’ so I shot him one time.”

“I was just thinking I’ve got to protect my kids, but I don’t want to kill someone in front of my kids. I’ve always been that person that said if anyone ever came in my house, I’d shoot them and I’d kill them, but it’s a little different in the moment when you’ve got your kids watching. I just wanted him out of the house.”

When the authorities arrived, they quickly apprehended Aquil using tasers.

(Video Credit: Atlanta News First)

Looking back, Couch is most proud of his son.

“I was so proud of him, he was probably the calmest one there,” the proud father told the Daily Mail. “He knew to come in and wake me, all he said was ‘someone has busted my window,’ and then he went and made sure the front door was locked and tried to wake up his older brother.”

But he also revealed that the horrific experience has taken a toll on his family’s mental health.

“It’s been rough,” he said. “My daughter’s thing was that she was always scared to sleep in her room in case someone came in, and now somebody did, and now I don’t think my daughter will ever sleep in her room again. I mean I don’t really want to go into my own home right now and I’m 38 years-of-age.”

The family also feels differently now about their neighborhood. They used to think it was so safe that Couch kept his cars unlocked in the driveway.

“I moved out of Atlanta to get away from all that,” he said. “Nothing was taken from us, this happened at 11.30 pm at night, this person was just trying to hurt my family.”

“The sheriff’s response was phenomenal, but for him to say that in all his 28 years without doing what I did it he would have been dealing with a homicide. He told me the guy is going to jail for a very long time,” he added.

Aquil has been charged with burglary, home invasion, terroristic threats, three counts of cruelty to children in the 1st degree, criminal damage to property in the 2nd degree, and obstruction of law enforcement.

According to the Daily Mail, Aquil was previously on probation for having broken into another person’s home.

On account of what happened, Butts County Sheriff Gary Long is now holding gun safety classes for locals, according to Atlanta News First.

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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.

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