A west Houston resident was shot confronting two burglars early Saturday morning, but he survived after returning fire and killing one of the assailants.
KTRK reported that the man received an alert through his Ring doorbell at about 3:30 am on Saturday and saw the two suspects walking into his garage. Seeing them walking away from the garage with a box of tools, the homeowner grabbed his handgun and went outside to confront the men.
The police say the resident told the suspected burglars to leave, and, in response, they pulled out guns. The homeowner was shot in the leg but returned fire, killing one of the suspects and injuring the other. The injured suspect was able to flee the scene and has not been found.
“The other suspect must have left with a gun because we can’t find the other weapon. And he did leave on foot. We have a decent video we’re working with,” Houston Police Lieutenant R. Willkens told reporters.
The homeowner, who is maintaining anonymity, is recovering and cooperating with police as they investigate. He told KTRK his intentions were not to kill anybody, but just to defend himself.
Authorities have not yet determined whether to bring any charges against the resident, but Texas’s self-defense laws make that unlikely. The state’s penal code states, “[P]ersons may use force against another party when they reasonably believe that force is needed to protect them against another’s use of force or attempts to use illegal force.”
The incident was one of many involving firearms in the Houston area last weekend. KTRK reported 17 shootings, 9 deaths, and 17 injuries from Friday to Sunday.
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner spoke to reporters at the scene of one of the shootings, and he argued that crime is not rising in the area, despite these incidents of violence.
“Busy weekend, and it happens from time to time, but I want to let people know that crime is still down here in the city,” he said in a video posted by Fox 26 Houston.
One of the homeowner’s neighbors disagreed about crime levels in the city.
“It’s not true. You hear gunshots all the time,” he told KTRK. “We have a Ring camera. It goes off all the time. ‘Did you hear the gunshots over here?’ ‘Over there?’”
