trying to break into her window, and someone tore the screen covering her bedroom window only two days prior to the shooting. Event on August 11, 1972 On August 11, 1972, Wanrow's son complained to Hooper that while he was at play in the neighborhood with Hooper's eldest daughter, a man later identified as William Wesler lured them into his house and locked the screen door behind them. The children saw a knife on the counter nearby and fled. Wesler grabbed Wanrow's son and tried to drag him back into the house, but he managed to break free and run to safety. Shortly after the boy made Wesler's actions known, Hooper called the police, who went to her home. The accused arrived at the house, saying, "I didn't touch the kid, I didn't touch the kid." At that point, Hooper's daughter identified him as the man who had molested her the previous June. Wesler left the premises, and the police told Hooper they could not arrest him "until Monday morning", after she filed a formal complaint. Hooper called Wanrow at her home and told her about the altercation and her daughter's identification of the man who had raped her. Wanrow had been home trying to contact someone to repair her car. She pleaded with Hooper to bring all the children by taxi to her home where they would be safe. Hooper said the police told her the worst thing she could do was to leave her home and instead asked Wanrow if she could borrow her gun for protection. Concerned about her two children as well as Hooper and her three children, Wanrow took a taxi to Hooper's home. The landlord of the property informed the two mothers that Wesler had attempted to molest another young boy who had previously lived at the same residence, and that he had been committed to the Eastern State Hospital for the mentally ill. Hooper and the landlord said the police suggested that they "conk him over the head" with a baseball bat should he try to return and another advised them to "wait until he gets in the house". Late at night after the landlord left, Wanrow and Hooper became frightened, although they had the pistol with them. They invited Wanrow's sister and brother-in-law to the house, who arrived with three of their children. The four adults did not sleep in order to