Does a video show a true story about a veteran who shot three teens who were attempting to rob him and was then charged with murder? No, that's not true: The details of this story do not match a real case. The video uses clips from several unrelated news reports. In 2019, there was a Georgia homeowner who fatally shot three masked teens who had tried to rob him in his front yard, but this person was not charged with murder and was not identified as a veteran in news reports.
The video appeared in a post (archived here) published on Instagram by @mindsetoftherich on Nov. 14, 2025. It was captioned:
Justified or not, what do you think?
This is a screenshot of the video:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from instagram.com/reel/DQ-Dl1vDui7.)
Text captions on the video read:
Man eliminates 3 kids breaking into his home, and mother claims this was an excessive use of force were his actions justified?
A retired veteran was charged with murder after shooting and killing three intruding teenagers in his home.
The video is made up of a mashup of unrelated clips. It begins with footage of a distraught woman at a microphone, presumably in a courtroom, supported by another woman. The ragebaiting voiceover says:
My son only tried to rob you. You took his life! That was an abuse of force to him and you must pay for this!
This unexpected take - that the robbers deserve sympathy - is a common feature of ragebait videos, which push a provocative or offensive story line so that social media users will react, re-post and pump up audience engagement, which profits the creator of the fake story, through increased traffic and potential revenue from ads that chase traffic.
The second clip shows security camera footage of three men wearing black hoodies climbing an exterior stairway to a second floor entry. The railing and walls are painted tones of orange and peach. A palm tree is visible. In the upper right corner is some white text that is cut off. A Google reverse image search identifies this footage from Neptune Beach, Florida in many news stories about the unrelated incident. One example (pictured below) is an April 15, 2020 article (archived here) titled, "Video: Neptune Beach resident shoots at 3 armed robbers, police say".
The video footage captures the sound of several gunshots. Only one of the home invaders was hit, and all three were able to flee the scene. Later Leonard Wayne Larramore was admitted to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the chest -- Larramore survived, was charged with armed home invasion robbery, and jailed. A second man turned himself in on April 28, 2020. Lead Stories found no mention in news reporting of the resident's name or any reference to their occupation or military service. No charges were filed against the resident.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from news4jax.com/news/local/2020/04/15/video-neptune-beach-resident-shoots-at-3-armed-robbers-police-say.)
At 17 seconds into the video there are three mugshots displayed across the bottom of the frame. Searching for those images, Lead Stories found those three men were charged with capital murder in the Jan. 2018 murders of Bao and Jenny Lam of Spring, Texas. An article (archived here) on patch.com includes the mugshots (pictured below) with this photo caption:
Khari Ty Kendrick, age 23, Aakiel Ricardo Kendrick, age 21, and Erick Alfredo Peralta, age 20, were arrested on Wednesday for the murders of Bao and Jenny Lam. All three are being held without bond. (Courtesty: HCSO)
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from patch.com/texas/houston/suspects-spring-couples-murder-held-without-bond.)
At 41 seconds and again at 1 minute, 16 seconds of the video we are fact-checking, a police car is shown blocking off a residential street. This image is from Indianapolis, Indiana (pictured below) and appears in a Dec. 31, 2022 video (archived here) published by wthr.com titled, "IMPD: Man was parked in his grandmother's driveway when he was shot by officers".
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from wthr.com/video/news/local/impd-man-was-parked-in-his-grandmothers-driveway-when-he-was-shot-by-officers/531-8902f819-30df-44a3-868b-cc860053e90d.)
At 30 seconds in the video clip we are fact checking, a man wearing a red ball cap is shown being interviewed by a news reporter. This man, a neighbor, appears at 56 seconds in a 11Alive report (embedded below) about an incident in Rockdale County, Georgia on Sept. 16, 2019. A homeowner fatally shot three masked teens who tried to rob him outside in his yard. The homeowner is not named in news reports, there is no mention of their military service, and no charges were filed.
Lead Stories encountered another mashup video following a similar storyline (pictured below) with different video clips. It was posted on Facebook by @Cops.Camera.USA on Nov. 10, 2025.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from facebook.com/reel/1157014392692297.)
