Things went from bad to worse for a quartet of armed burglars in Brookhaven, Georgia late Thursday. After the four men broke into a home, the home’s owner spotted them on surveillance cameras that were monitoring the inside of her residence.
The woman dialed 911 to report the break-in, but she also phoned a friend, who decided to go to the home and confront the suspects.
A shootout took place between the suspects and the homeowner’s friend just before police arrived.
Officers saw the suspects speed away in a silver Lexus, authorities said. Police unsuccessfully tried to pull it over and a pursuit ensued.
The suspects eventually crashed into a utility pole nearly three miles away near a CarMax dealership on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard in Chamblee, officials said. All four suspects got out of the car and started to run away, according to the GBI. The driver, identified as Albert Eugene Burns, 19, of Snellville, exited the vehicle with a gun in his hand, the GBI said.
That prompted an officer to open fire, striking Burns, authorities confirmed. Burns then dropped the gun, the GBI said, and continued running. As he ran, he dropped a second gun and tried to pick it up, which is when the officer shot him again, the GBI said.
Burns was taken to a hospital and described as critical but stable, Brookhaven police said. No officers were injured.
Two of the other three suspects who fled after their getaway vehicle crashed into the utility pole have also been arrested. 22-year-old Davion Harper and 18-year-old Tyson Kamari Kirksey, 18 are now facing charges of first-degree burglary, while the fourth suspect is still on the run.
Andrew Fisher, who lives near the burglarized home, said he heard “a bunch of gunshots” and saw a car fleeing.
“Of course, you think it’s fireworks at first, but I mean, it was sporadic, and you could tell it’s a little bit different,” he said. “We were on alert, but … we called the police, and they knew that something was happening.”
Another neighbor, Tony Mora, said he didn’t hear the commotion Thursday night but woke up to the police activity Friday morning, something that he said is unusual for the area.
“That’s why I moved here because it’s quiet,” he said. “I never thought that would happen here. I mean, it’s too much.”
Violent crime can happen anywhere, even in gated communities or quiet subdivisions.
What makes this case a little different than most of the defensive gun uses that we cover here at Bearing Arms is the fact that the armed citizen wasn’t responding in the moment to a threat to their life. Instead, they went to the scene of the crime to confront the four men who’d broken into the home.
It’s unclear from the media reports whether the homeowner was actually inside the residence when she spotted the intruders on her surveillance cameras, or if she was monitoring her camera feed from another location. If she was stuck inside the house with four armed strangers, I don’t blame her one bit for calling a friend after she dialed 91, but if she only wanted to protect her property and wasn’t in fear for her life, it would have been best to wait for police to respond rather than putting her friend at risk. Defense of property doesn’t justify using deadly force under Georgia law, but in this case it sounds like the armed citizen was presented with a threat to life and limb when he encountered the armed intruder in his friend’s home.
Regardless of the particular circumstances, authorities haven’t charged the armed citizen with any crime, and thankfully the only person injured in this incident was the suspect shot by police. I’d say this was a pretty successful defensive gun use, though the homeowner should think about having her own gun for self-defense in the future instead of having to rely on a friend for protection.
