June 5th, 2008
A homeowner shot and killed a suspect who was allegedly trying to break into his West Valley home early Thursday morning.
It happened at about 1:30 a.m., in the area of 59h Avenue and McDowell Road.
Police said the family of four was asleep at the time.
The homeowner reportedly woke up when he heard somebody kicking in the door. That man grabbed his shotgun and waited near his bedroom door.
When the bedroom door swung open, the man said he saw a man with a gun. That’s when he opened fire.
That suspect died on the scene.
When you’re talking home defense, I sure don’t think anything beats a shotgun. Just racking a 12 gauge is sure to give a lot of invaders a moment of pause, and very few are going to stand in the line of fire even against birdshot.
Shotgun shell image from IHEA.
Tags: AZ
June 5th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Well said sir!
June 5th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
…shot and killed a suspect who was allegedly trying to break into his West Valley home…’ I wonder how this would have been reported 50 years ago. Somehow I doubt that it would have been reported that a strange man kicking in your door in the middle of the night was allegedly trying to breaking in.
June 5th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Sounds like the homeowner knew what he was doing. Bird shot is a poor fight stopper, and if you are counting on scaring the bad guy with the sound of racking then you are facing a bad guy with an unloaded gun. Deadly force is for situations where you reasonably believe that you might be killed. If that is the case I would want more than sound effects and I want a round that is going to take him out of the fight as quickly as possible.
June 8th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
mostlygenius: To be clear, I’m certainly not advocating birdshot or dependence on a scary racking-noise to protect for self-defense. What I’m saying is that many burglers aren’t dedicated enough to getting your stuff to take the risk.