The 15-year-old boy was found dead inside his home, with his 5-year-old unharmed sister.
A Florida teen was killed while trying to protect his little sister from a man who forced his way into their home, authorities said.
Fifteen-year-old Khyler Edman, a high school honor student, was looking after his 5-year-old sister when the front door was knocked down. During "a violent encounter" with the intruder, the boy was killed, according to Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell.
The siblings' mother was not home when the intruder attacked last week.
In a GoFundMe account post, the teen's mother asked for help in paying for his funeral. He "lost his life being a hero protecting his 5-year-old sister, when a man broke into our home in Port Charlotte," she wrote. "He was only 15 years old and lost his life due to a senseless act of a stranger. My son had a long life ahead of him, that was taken too soon."
The sheriff's department said 911 calls began coming in around the time of the break-in, saying an injured man was walking the streets and acting strangely. Arriving deputies saw 27-year-old Ryan Cole, who appeared to have been stabbed several times on his hands and torso, authorities said. He ran from deputies but was quickly caught and transported to a local hospital for treatment, the department said.
While canvassing the neighborhood, deputies discovered the broken-into Edman home, with the teen's body and the young girl inside.
Authorities have not explicitly connected Cole to the break-in at the Edman home. And no further details have been released as the investigation is ongoing, sheriff's department spokesman Skip Conroy told InsideEdition.com Tuesday.
Cole has been charged with burglary and petty theft of another home as investigators piece together what happened, Conroy said. Cole is being held on $105,000 bond.
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