Lawrence County man, 84, shoots home intruder to death
An 84-year-old man who sleeps with a loaded pistol beneath his pillow shot to death one of two men who broke into his house early Friday in Lawrence County.
“It was a me-or-them” situation, said Don Lutz of Ellport.
“I wasn’t scared at all. I had my gun. I’m an expert with guns. You do what you have to do,” Mr. Lutz said Friday afternoon.
Ellwood City police Lt. David Kingston said Mr. Lutz shot the intruder at “point-blank range in the chest.”
The man died on Mr. Lutz’s kitchen floor, and the second intruder fled.
There is no description of the second man because the house was “pitch black at the time,” the lieutenant said.
The home invasion occurred at 1:10 a.m.
“I couldn’t tell them anything about the guy [who fled],” Mr. Lutz said.
After consulting with the local district attorney, Lt. Kingston said Mr. Lutz will not be charged with a crime. “He was defending himself,” the lieutenant said.
Lawrence County District Attorney Joshua Lamancusa said two legal theories protect Mr. Lutz: self-defense and the state’s Castle Doctrine, which allows a homeowner to use deadly force to protect life, family or house against an intruder.
“Based upon the circumstances that led up to the shooting, the Lawrence County District Attorney’s Office has no intention of filing charges against Mr. Lutz,” Mr. Lamancusa said. “There is no duty to retreat in your home. He was authorized to use deadly force under these circumstances.”
Police had not identified the man who was killed.
Lt. Kingston said the man appeared to be 35 to 45 years old. Mr. Lutz added that the man weighed close to 300 pounds and was white. Mr. Lamancusa said no weapon was found on the dead man, who was wearing rubber gloves.
The elderly military veteran said he owns several weapons and has made it a longtime habit to sleep with a loaded pistol.
“What’s the point of having a gun if it’s not loaded?” he said.
Mr. Lutz said he became comfortable with weapons when he served during the Korean War,
wounded, that man and the second intruder tussled with spending some 16 months in Mr. Lutz. The three scuffled combat. on the kitchen floor until the
Friday’s incident began wounded intruder “rolled with Mr. Lutz being startled over dead.” The second awake by the sound of breaking man then ran out the front glass. door.
“They broke the glass and Mr. Lutz called police. pushed in the door,” he said. “The police couldn’t find
Carrying his .380-caliber the bullet. It went clean pistol, he went down a hallway through him,” Mr. Lutz and confronted the said. “I hope the police find men. the other guy.”
“It was pitch black. I met Lt. Kingston described one face-on, and he reached Mr. Lutz’s Jamison Street out and grabbed at me. I shot home as part of a neighborhood him,” Mr. Lutz recounted. not known for having
Though mortallyproblems with crime.
“Their motive is unknown to us. We don’t know if this was a random targeting, if there was something more to this,” said Mr. Lamancusa, who added that there was nothing to suggest a relationship between Mr. Lutz and the intruders.
Mr. Lutz, who lives alone, has been married three times. He has no children. He retired at 60 from the now-closed Armstrong World Industries plant in Beaver Falls, where he was a machinist, carpenter and sheet metal worker. He also was a union officer, he said.