Nashville Homeowner Shoots Would-Be Burglar Anton Cosby Climbing Through a Kitchen Window and Is Cleared as Self-Defense

A weekend break-in attempt was cut short by a Nashville homeowner who grabbed a gun and defended his family, leaving the man trying to force his way inside wounded and on the run.

The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department reported that the confrontation unfolded just before 6:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 20, 2024, when 32-year-old Anton Cosby allegedly tried to break into a house on Shreeve Lane in the Trinity Hills neighborhood. The homeowner and his family were jolted awake by loud banging on the front door and windows.

According to police, the homeowner retrieved a firearm and repeatedly ordered Cosby to leave or he would shoot. Cosby ignored those warnings, smashed the kitchen window and began climbing through, at which point the homeowner fired a single round that struck him in the arm.

Wounded, Cosby dropped a revolver near the kitchen sink and fled the scene on foot. Officers located him a short distance away, but he allegedly turned combative when they tried to render aid. He was eventually subdued and taken to TriStar Skyline Medical Center to be treated for a gunshot wound described as non-critical.

Investigators said the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office reviewed the encounter and determined the homeowner had acted in self-defense, meaning he was not expected to face charges for the shooting. Cosby, by contrast, faced a stack of counts to be filed once he was released from the hospital: aggravated burglary, felony vandalism, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm while intoxicated.

The episode rattled a neighborhood where residents said this kind of violence was almost unheard of. Longtime resident Linda Thomas told WSMV 4 that in the 15 years she had lived in Trinity Hills, she had never known anything like it to happen on her block. She said she was already protected by cameras and an alarm but was weighing whether to add more security.

“I feel so secure,” Thomas said, adding that she believed most people would not bother to climb the hill to her home. Even so, she was uneasy about the role guns now seemed to play in keeping the peace. “I’m leery that, you know, we have to have guns just to have peace in our neighborhood or our homes. That’s the last thing you really want to have to deal with,” she said.

Court records later closed the Cosby case. On April 14, 2025, in Davidson County Criminal Court, the aggravated burglary and weapons counts were dismissed. Cosby was convicted of felony vandalism of $2,500 or more but less than $10,000, received a four-year sentence that was suspended in favor of four years of supervised probation, and was ordered to pay $2,500 in restitution. The homeowner was not charged.

The case adds to a long-running national debate over self-defense law and when a resident is justified in using deadly force against an intruder. For more coverage of similar incidents, see The AEGIS Alliance’s Crime News section.