US girl's mum shoots Kiwi her daughter met online, as he tried to enter their home

GOOCHLAND COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE

Troy George Skinner, 25, remains in hospital.

A New Zealand man who travelled to the US home of a 14-year-old girl he had communicated with online for months was shot by the girl's mother, a sheriff said.

Troy George Skinner, 25, was shot Friday (local time) after he allegedly smashed a glass door and tried to enter the home in Goochland, Virginia, said sheriff James Agnew.

The Goochland County sheriff said Skinner bought a knife and duct tape from Walmart after arriving in the US. The sheriff also said the girl's mother saw a man trying to enter her home, warned him several times she had a gun, then fired after he broke the glass on the second door he tried to open.

Skinner was struck in the neck and remains hospitalised, authorities say. 

"All I can say is the manner in which he attempted to enter that home in the face of a firearm pointed at him and the implements we recovered from him - the only inference is that he had very bad intent," Agnew said.

"His arrival here was totally unexpected by anyone," Agnew told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.  

"I have to emphasise very clearly, that while he may be ... in the hospital [with a gunshot wound], he is not the victim. The lady [who shot Skinner to prevent him from entering] and her family members are the victims."

Investigators believe Skinner's actions were part of a clearly planned trip from New Zealand, the Times-Dispatch reports. 

Skinner first made contact with the Goochland girl three to four months earlier via Discord, a voice-over-internet app that allows video-gamers to communicate via their personal device. 

US authorities have traced Skinner's movements back to a flight from Auckland, New Zealand, at 6.05am on Wednesday, June 20 to Sydney, Australia. From there, Skinner boarded a 9.25am flight to Los Angeles.   

He took a third flight at 9.40pm to Washington DC, and then caught a Greyhound bus at 8.35am to Richmond, Virginia, 175 kilometres south of Washington DC. 

The Times-Dispatch reports that a neighbour saw a man in black clothing about 2.30pm cross the road near Steeplechase Parkway, where the mother and daughter lived. 

Two hours later, authorities received a phone call about a man wearing black trying to break into the family's home. 

Agnew said the mother was downstairs with one of her daughters when Skinner knocked on the front door, but she did not go to the door.

"They thought that was the end of it until they saw him at the back basement door, which is situated under the deck." 

Skinner apparently told the family he was a hitchhiker who needed help. 

"He got a brick and attempted to break that door down," the sheriff said. 

Agnew said Skinner would be charged with breaking and entering with a deadly weapon with the intent commit a serious crime.

It wasn't immediately known if Skinner has an attorney. His hometown in New Zealand was not given by authorities.

- AP, Stuff