Neighbors say that the homeowner used to leave a vehicle parked in the driveway so it appeared that someone lived there, but recently stopped doing that. (Photo credit: The Wichita Eagle)
A Wichita man stopped two armed intruders earlier this month when they broke into his father’s vacant home. One suspect was taken into police custody, but the other is still unaccounted for, even though there was evidence at the home that the second man had been shot.
The home had been empty for several years and had also been broken into numerous times, prompting the homeowner to install an alarm system recently. Police Lt. Doug Nolte told local news reporters that the incident happened just before 5 a.m. on July 3.
After the homeowner was alerted by the security system that there was an intruder in the house and his adult son, who lived nearby, went to the house to investigate.
Lisa Stock, a neighbor who witnessed the event from her own home, said that the son parked his truck several houses away and then walked to his father’s house. “Then I heard what I thought was shots,” Stock said.
Another neighbor, who did not want to be identified, said, “We thought it was fireworks at first.” But it wasn’t.
According to the police, when the son went into the house, he was faced with two men who had broken in through a window. One of the men was armed with a knife and confronted the man, and that’s when he said he fired two shots at the suspects.
The man believed that he had hit one of the suspects and a bloody shirt was even recovered from the scene, but police have not yet found that suspect. Officers did find the other suspect near the home though and he was arrested and taken to the Sedgwick County jail. Police were checking local hospitals for a gunshot victim, but there were no further reports that the second suspect was in custody.
“You certainly have a right to protect yourself and that’s what in this case it appears the homeowner was doing,” Nolte said in a statement.
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