A grand jury will decide whether or not to criminally charge the retired Houston firefighter. Right now he faces no charges. He tells us he had no choice but to shoot in self-defense.
Just before 10pm Wednesday, as a man who lives in a home on Glenhurst was returning from the grocery store, police say he was confronted by two masked men with guns.
The victim, who asked not be identified, said, "I did everything that they said, then they took us in. One of them hit me in the head."
That man says the men made him, his sister and teenaged niece get on the floor. They demanded money.
The victim recalled, "I said, 'Man, what? Man, what money?' He said, 'I'm not playing around. You want me to kill you?' I said, 'What money?'"
The resident says the two men began ransacking the home. While one searched in the attic, the other started sifting through a bookcase. He says that's when he saw a window of opportunity to grab his own gun, hidden in his belt.
"I didn't want to kill nobody, but it was them or us at that point," he said.
The resident killed one of the suspects inside the house. Those living in the home then fled outside to a outside a neighbor's screaming for help. The second suspect fired on them there. You can see bullet holes in the side of that house.
The neighbor tells us the retired firefighter returned fire. One of the suspect's bullets pierced the wall of the neighbor's home, bounced off a couch and landed on his living room floor. Thankfully, folks say no one else was hurt.
"I don't want to hurt nobody, but I did what I had to do after they kept threatening to kills us," the victim said.
That second suspect took off running and got away. It's not clear if he was hurt.
The dead intruder has been identified now by authorities as Joseph Goudeau of Houston.
If you have any information about this case that might help investigators, you can call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
