HOUSTON – A homeowner opened fire on a suspect allegedly breaking into his northeast Houston house early Friday. While they waited for police officers to arrive, the suspect told the homeowner why he did it.
“He said he’s a dope fiend, and I said ‘Oh really? Sir, you picked the wrong house to try to burglarize. I’m not the person you need to be dealing with,’” Johnny Thompson explained.
Thompson said he was alone at his home on Melbourne at the Eastex Freeway when he heard rumbling around 3:15 a.m. and went outside to investigate.
“I went into my backyard to check things out and I noticed my window unit was being moved around,” he said.
After realizing someone was inside his house, he immediately went back in and grabbed his pistol.
“I went upstairs slowly and walked in on this guy getting ready to push my air conditioner, or pull it out, of the window,” Thompson said. “I shot him and I asked him ‘Why are you in my house?’”
That is when the suspect explained that he had a drug problem.
Thompson then told the man to “sit tight” while he went back downstairs and called police.
Thompson was not quite sure exactly where the suspect was shot, but said it could be in the stomach area. The suspect was transported to Ben Taub Hospital in serious, but stable condition.
The homeowner said he is always on alert for crimes like these.
“This is not the first time this has happened to me, I walked in on an act in ’05,” he said. “I’m OK, I just hate this happened to me again, but this time, the person didn’t get away.”