Neighbor shoots, wounds burglary suspect on South Side

A South Side resident shot and wounded someone who apparently broke into his neighbor’s house Tuesday morning, Houston police said.

The shooting happened about 7:35 a.m. in the 4800 block of Ventura, east of Old Spanish Trail and Calhoun.

Police said a burglar first knocked on the door to see if anyone was home and then broke through a back window to gain entry to the house.

Two sisters, 12 and 14, were inside when the man broke in through the back window, said Assistant Chief Sheryl Victorian. The siblings realized a burglar was inside, hid in a bedroom and called their mother. She alerted police, telling them there was a burglary in progress at her home.

The mother then activated an alarm system, which the neighbor heard, according to police. He saw the burglary suspect coming out of the house and told him to stop. When he didn’t, the neighbor apparently felt threatened and shot the burglar twice with a rifle, Victorian said.

Around the same time that the neighbor confronted the suspect, the girls’ father came home and thought his daughters were still in danger, Victorian said. He broke down the front window and pulled the girls out to rescue them.

Suspect injured twice

Police arrived and found the neighbor standing outside, saying he had shot the burglary suspect, who had two gunshot wounds in the back, police said.

The suspect was taken to Ben Taub Hospital, where was listed in critical but stable condition.

It doesn’t appear that the suspect had a weapon, but there was evidence he had already been in the home before he was shot, Victorian said.

“She’s grateful that her neighbors are attentive.” Assistant. Chief Sheryl Victorian

The neighbor has not been identified but is described as a man of retirement age. He has been detained, and his case will likely be referred to a grand jury, Victorian said.

The sisters were taken to the hospital for observation and are in good condition. The father also went with them to the hospital. He had some cuts and scrapes from breaking the window, police said.

Mom shaken up

Several people in the neighborhood have formed an informal neighborhood watch program, Victorian said.

“The mom is pretty shaken up but she’s relieved that her daughters are safe and that they’re OK,” the assistant chief said. “She’s grateful that her neighbors are attentive.”

Some neighbors said that while their homes had never been broken into, burglaries in the area were nothing new.

One resident said that the crime in the area resulted in their program, where neighbors call each other when they spot strangers on each other’s property.

The neighborhood, south of MacGregor Park and the University of Houston, is populated mostly with tidy, single-story houses. The home the burglar allegedly broke into on Tuesday was surrounded with red crime tape, and Ventura was largely inaccessible to the public.

The shooting recall similarities to a November 2007 case in which retiree Joe Horn fatally shot two burglars in the front yard of his Pasadena home despite pleas from a police dispatcher to stay out of harm’s way. A grand jury cleared him months later, determining that the act was a justifiable use of deadly force.

Much of Horn’s defense hinged on the assertion that he was defending himself out of fear for his life.