PISTOL-PACKING NEIGHBOR HOLDS OFF BURGLAR

Gunshot stops home break-in, deputies say

James Murray has always been known as someone who would help out his neighbors in Deerfield Beach. And this time he needed his pistol to do it.

Murray, 74, heard a neighbor’s window panes break at the Penthouse North condos about midnight Saturday, according to a police report. His friend, Jackie Jessee, was not home at the time.

Murray found a burglar trying to get into the ground-floor unit. The man — 50 years younger and 6 inches taller — charged him, and Murray fired one shot and missed, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said.

Nearby, Deputies Moises Carotti and Lee Geiger were looking for a suspicious person along East Hillsboro Boulevard, also in Deerfield Beach. They heard a gunshot that came from about a block away.

When they arrived, they found Murray pointing a handgun at Garrett Ford Plump, 24, a report said.

Plump, of Pompano Beach, was arrested on suspicion of committing burglary with assault or battery, and unarmed burglary of an unoccupied dwelling. He is being held in a Broward County jail on a $5,000 bond.

Jessee said on Monday that she had been in Boca Raton visiting a friend Saturday night when Murray called and put her on the phone with a deputy.

“Oh my God, he did everything for me,” Jessee said about her neighbor. “Jim kept the guy cornered until the police came.”

The next day, she said, “He came and put in all new glass on my Jalousie doors. He replaced five of the broken panels for me.”

People in their community are close and friendly, Jessee said.

Of 125 units, she said, “I know most of them. Everybody kind of looks out for everybody else.”

Murray, who worked out of state as a firefighter, lives in the complex with his wife.

“He is just one of these guys that is always ready to help somebody,” Jessee said. “He’s the kind of person that wouldn’t stay inside and wait to see what happened. He would go outside. He’s very nice and very compassionate.” And humble, too. Reached by phone Monday, Murray declined to talk about what he had done for his neighbor.

To say thanks, Jessee said, “I’m making him cranberry nut bread.”