Prosecutor Says Armed Citizen Shot College Professor in Self-Defense

It took nearly four months to reach his conclusion, but DeKalb County, Tennessee District Attorney Bryant Dunaway has officially declared a shooting last December to be a justifiable use of force. Given the circumstances, I’m not sure why it took so long to come to that conclusion, but based on the information released by his office Dunaway made the right call. 

Todd Stanton was on his way to work early on the morning of December 4, 2025, when a woman suddenly appeared in front of his truck. Stanton was able to stop before he hit the woman, but was alarmed to see that she was holding a gun. As she advanced towards his truck, the woman raised her arms and pointed her pistol at him. 

Stanton drew his own gun and fired several shots through his windshield, striking the woman multiple times. She collapsed on the road, and Stanton called 911 to report what had happened. 

The woman in question was identified as Ashleigh McKinzie, a 41-year-old associate professor at Middle Tennessee State University who had no known connection to Stanton and no prior criminal history. Dunaway’s report details that a “cocked and loaded” handgun was found next to her body when police arrived at the scene, as well as a backpack that contained (among other items) a Stealth Cam vision monocular, several flashlights, a home surveillance camera. 

The district attorney’s report also outlines concerns about McKinzie’s mental state in the days leading up to the shooting. According to interviews, she had expressed fears that an ex-boyfriend was stalking her, though investigators found no evidence to support those claims.

Her boyfriend told authorities she had become increasingly paranoid and had recently purchased surveillance equipment and a handgun.

Toxicology results showed high levels of methamphetamine and amphetamine in her system at the time of her death.

The D.A.’s report mentions that her boyfriend said the night before the shooting, McKinzie was convinced that her ex was “hiding in the woodline” and claimed to hear him rustling leaves while he was walking around. The man said he was helping her install security cameras around her home, but “got tired of her wandering off to find her ex-boyfriend in the woods” and went to bed between 2 and 3 o’clock that morning. 

McKinzie had apparently sought an order of protection against her ex, who she claimed was wearing a wolf mask while stalking her, but the order was denied by a judge. As the D.A.’s report says, there’s no evidence or indication that she was being stalked by anyone, including her ex. 

The report also describes a “longtime friend” of McKinzie, who told authorities that the professor was “living a double life”; a respected professor on the one hand, but also someone who enjoyed “risky behaviors” and engaged in heavy drug use. 

The friend further stated that she had moved to Missouri about a year ago and had previously been a roommate of McKinzie in Murfreesboro before McKinzie bought her current home. She is not a “goody two-shoes professor.” She was staying strung out on drugs and it was becoming obvious. A year ago it was getting bad. McKinzie would stay up 3-4 days at a time. McKinzie used cocaine, meth, adderall and mushrooms frequently. She doesn’t remember McKinzie being completely sober very often. 

The former friend added that after McKinzie had been up for several days she would “hear people talking to her that weren’t there.” Additionally, the last text message from McKinzie to her ex was described by the D.A. as “a threatening rant.” 

Based on the D.A.’s investigation, it sounds like Ashleigh McKinzie was a deeply troubled soul with a lot of unresolved and ongoing issues. As Dunaway wrote in his report, the loss of any life is a tragic situation, and I’m sure everyone involved, as well as her friends and family, wishes that she would have sought help in the days before her death. 

Todd Stanton didn’t set out for work that morning intending or expecting to shoot someone in self-defense, but when McKinzie pointed her pistol at him it was entirely reasonable to believe that she posed a deadly threat to his life. I too wish that McKinzie had made many different choices in her life instead of those that ended up with her standing in the road that December morning, but I’m glad that Stanton was able to protect himself when his life was threatened for no reason at all by a woman he’d never met.  

Editor’s Note: Defensive gun uses happen dozens of times each day, but only a handful are ever reported by the media. 

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