Walton County Sheriff Joe Chapman -- whose office responded to the shooting at the Hermans' home -- said he believes the mother and her two children were in a life-and-death situation and she had no choice but to exercise her constitutional right to self-defense.

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Walton is in Delaware County, 120 miles northwest of New York City.

WSJ: Upstate NY man found dead after wife's suicide

Garry Walton, 21, of County Waterford, Ireland, drowned on an excursion off Playa de Las Americas in November 1996.

BBC: Darren Sapstead