Officials: Homeowner shoots burglary suspect in west Harris County

HOUSTON

The shots were fired around 3pm at a home on Branch West.

After answering all the deputies' questions, the man who shot the suspected burglar easily summed up his reaction.

"I didn't know if he was armed or not," said the homeowner, who didn't want to be publicly identified.

The homeowner was clearly shaken up about what happened. His wife says he returned to find their home burglarized -- an iPad, game system and gun stolen. As they were waiting for officers to respond, she says the crook came back and her husband opened fire.

"I always keep one on me. He stole my wife's gun," the homeowner said.

So he reached for his other gun.

"Somebody came into the house while I was in there with my family," he said.

He fired off multiple shots. The suspect, wounded, escaped to the apartment complex behind his house, where Houston police found him. He was rushed to Memorial Hermann Hospital as the wife's father, Danny Burkett, arrived.

"I'm grateful that everything worked out OK for them. But the perpetrator, I don't have no mercy for that bastard," Burkett said.

Break-ins have plagued this neighborhood.

"Everything gone," the homeowner said.

Just ask Anthony Duong, who came home a week ago to find his back door kicked open. His TVs and computers were stolen and his was closet ransacked.

"Maybe more than $10,000," Duong said.

He feared the crooks would come back for more. On Thursday, this homeowner was ready.

"You have the galls to come back the second time? You should get what they had coming," he said.

An update on the suspect's condition was not available Thursday night.

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