This morning, KTRK in Houston, Texas, reported that around 5 o’clock local time,

[a] man was shot to death Sunday morning at a north Harris County apartment complex in what deputies say may have been self defense.

It continued with what law enforcement officers found waiting for them at the apartment home:

Deputies responded to a shooting call at the apartment when they found a man dead inside from a gunshot wound. The man’s girlfriend was still on the scene when they arrived, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

She told police that the man had been in the process of sexually assaulting her. But another disturbing allegation emerged which the girlfriend shared with the officers; this wasn’t the first time the man had assaulted her.

TV station KRIV takes up the details of how the melee escalated: (emphasis mine)

Based on preliminary information, officials say the man’s girlfriend told them he was assaulting her and pulled a gun on her. A struggle ensued over the gun before it went off, hitting the man and ultimately killing him.

Sources differ on how exactly the gun became involved (e.g. who drew the weapon and whether they tussled over it), though one fact is clear: the woman was fighting for her own safety when deadly weapon was discharged.

Police investigators are still piecing together the chain of events that lead to the man’s death, before the case eventually goes before a grand jury. Though they told reporters that the boyfriend had been “in and out of jail” because of the previous assaults on the woman. As stated earlier, since officials deemed this to be entirely self-defense, the woman was not arrested.

But there was an even more shocking element to what might otherwise look like a run of the mill, ‘domestic dispute gone bad’ incident, KRIV reported:

Simultaneously, authorities believe there’s an element of “human trafficking” involved such as prostitution with her and possibly other women.

First of all, why in the world was this ‘boyfriend,’ who possibly was a pimp and not actually the victim’s significant other, free and not in behind bars after what sound like several altercations and sexual assaults? Possibly on several other women, as well. When and where would such a person gain access to a weapon, based on his violent record? Was that access done in a legal way? My guess is that it was not.

Then there’s this brave woman’s innate, legal right to defend her life, much less feel safe and secure from a rapist and potential human trafficker. If this woman and others were trafficked, as officials suspect, remember this is a form of modern slavery. I shouldn’t even have to say this, but no human being should be enslaved, period.

On another front, imagine this shooting had happened somewhere other than Texas, in a Democrat-run state with much more anti-Second Amendment and pro-‘defund the police’ leaders wielding power in the governor’s mansion or in the state attorney general‘s office. While there’s still much we don’t know about what took place, and it’s never a happy occasion when someone loses their life, thank God this woman lived in a red state where she was able to defend herself at a truly crucial moment.