2 would-be burglars get blasted

By CHRIS BRENNAN brennac@phillynews.com

Two burglars in a Northeast apartment got more then they bargained for yesterday afternoon when the well-armed tenant came home, police said.

In a scuffle, both burglars were shot by the tenant, who was returning from an afternoon of skeet-shooting, police said.

The shootings occurred at 1 p.m. in a first-floor apartment at the Manchester Apartments on Walnut Hill Street near Hargrave.

Philadelphia Police Sgt. Roland Lee said the tenant found his apartment door ajar when he arrived and went inside.

One of the suspects was wounded in the stomach and taken into custody. The other was shot in the arm and escaped.

"They picked the wrong guy," Lee said. "This guy was already warmed up."

The tenant, whom police did not identify, was carrying at least two weapons, a shotgun used for skeet shooting and a 9 mm pistol.

He used the pistol to shoot the two burglars after one of them attacked the tenant with a screwdriver, police said.

The suspect, whom police also did not identify, was taken to Frankford-Torresdale Hospital with a single gunshot wound to the stomach. He was listed in critical condition yesterday, police said.

The second suspect ran off after being shot and was being sought yesterday.

The tenant had a permit to carry the 9 mm pistol and was not facing charges yesterday, Lee said.

Shell casings littered Walnut Hill Street, where the tenant apparently chased the suspect who escaped into the neighborhood of apartment buildings and brick duplexes.

Another tenant, who did not identify herself, said she heard the shots as she was preparing to leave her apartment with her kids. She said they were "petrified" and stayed indoors.

She also said there has been a problem with break-ins in the last week at the building. A woman who answered the phone at the apartment complex's office declined to comment. *

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2001

Answers

Another tenant, who did not identify herself, said she heard the shots as she was preparing to leave her apartment with her kids. She said they were "petrified" and stayed indoors.

Get used to it lady. We live in a world with terrorists as neighbors, now.

Good for the dude with the guns! I love these types of stories! Pity he didn't have decent locks on his apartment, but there is probably a silly rule about not changing things like that.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2001

Here's another one:

ChicSunTimes

Husband shoots home invader to death

November 23, 2001

BY ANNIE SWEENEY STAFF REPORTER

A Buffalo Grove man was shot and killed early Thursday after he allegedly stormed into a West Side couple's bedroom and demanded to see the woman's breasts, police said.

The shooting was ruled justified and charges were not brought against the man who fatally shot Curtis Reed once in the chest, Chicago police said.

Reed, 42, kicked in the basement door of the apartment building in the 3800 block of West Monroe at 4:20 a.m., ran up the back stairwell and directly into the bedroom on the first floor, where a 57-year-old woman and a 58-year-old man were in bed, Area 4 Violent Crimes Detective Mike Miller said.

The couple had heard someone enter their home and were ready when Reed burst into the bedroom, police said. The man reportedly responded to Reed's demand by pulling out a handgun and firing.

Reed did not appear to have ransacked the home or to have tried to steal anything, Miller said.

"He stormed upstairs and into the bedroom and said to the woman: 'Show me your [breasts],' '' Miller said. "And at that point, the husband fired.''

Miller said police do not think Reed knew the couple, nor were they sure why he chose that home.

Reed was pronounced dead at 6:30 a.m. at the Cook County medical examiner's office.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2001