Exercising the Right
“Devastated”
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on November 2 that an elderly homeowner who was forced to shoot two burglars was overcome with remorse after the incident. The 73-year-old retired fireman was working in his garage when two armed intruders barged in and demanded his vehicle. The man had a pistol concealed in his pocket and quickly pulled it out and fired at the two men. The shots hit their marks, and the two injured men stumbled to the ground, where they were pronounced dead by arriving authorities. Captain Mary Warnecke, supervisor of the homicide unit of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that “it appears the homeowner acted in self-defense.” Law enforcement later identified the deceased suspects as two young men from nearby Florissant and Ferguson.
Neighbor Peggy Armbruster, who lives across the street from where the shooting occurred, told the paper that the homeowner who fired the fatal shots had lived in the area with his wife for a long time and that both are “super, super nice people.” Armbruster explained that the man would routinely remove snow from her porch or assist another “neighbor who is blind.” Armbruster did say that the man had been the victim of a burglary in the past, and she also knew he was an avid hunter.
The homeowner was very upset over the incident, even though he fired because he feared for his life, regretting that he was forced to end two lives: “I wish it had never happened.… I am devastated over it.”
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