Bandleader kills gunman.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Heath Miller)

Heath Miller was selected as his school's most popular teacher in 2007, and band parents praise his leadership of the school's award-winning drum line called the Percussion Academy, but popularity doesn't mean that one will not become the victim of crime, just as the stresses of being a teacher don't prepare one mentally for a life-threatening criminal encounter. Well respected in his middle-school role as a band teacher, the 34-year-old Miller was thrust into a new role on February 16, as he shot and killed a masked gunman inside his home. The brief incident has caused a lot of stress for Miller. The Palm Beach Post reported that Miller's mother said, "He's better now, but he had to have sedatives to sleep this morning."

According to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office's account of the incident, Robert Tomlin, 22, broke into Miller's duplex through a sliding glass door at about 2 a.m. Miller's dogs began barking, alerting Miller and his wife, who huddled in their bedroom as the intruder moved around their home. Miller grabbed a .38-caliber pistol he keeps for protection and waited anxiously with his wife, Mirelle, as the intruder ...