A man who broke into a home in Johnson City early Monday was in critical condition Tuesday after being shot in the chest, police said.
Johnson City police say Christopher Ricketts, 23, entered an unlocked home near the intersection of Avenue G and Ash Street about 1:30 a.m. Monday and woke the homeowner while rummaging around.
As you read the rest of the article, it seems evident the case is clear-cut: Ricketts had burglary tools, he was inside someone else’s home rummaging around, the homeowner defended himself and his property.
A couple of key points worth mentioning:
First, the homeowner worked to stop the threat. He didn’t “shoot to kill”, he didn’t keep shooting after the threat had ceased. Seems 1 from a 9mm was enough to get the job done.
Second, the words “entered an unlocked home” jumped out at me. The homeowner was home but their doors/windows were unlocked. I have to wonder if this could have been avoided entirely if the homeowner had simply locked their doors. Predators look for easy prey. If a criminal didn’t mind working hard, they’d have an honest job.
Stuff From Hsoi 
might be hard to lock doors and windows left open to take advantage of the cooler night breezes 🙂
You mean there’s a place in Texas right now that has cooler night breezes? Well ok… 80º at night is cooler than the 105º-110º we’re getting during the day…. 🙂
But you know, the wind apparently isn’t the only thing that wants to come through those open doors and windows….
I love living in the future…..did you pull up a satellite view of the location?
I did.
Not exactly rural but not exactly big city either…far from big city.
While crime can — and does obviously – happen anywhere, this isn’t a case of having to lock your doors at night to keep the hobos out.
I think what I focused on was a combination of two factors — the thug rode his bike to a particular location and had tools prepared in advanced.
To me this shows he was determined to rob that place. Not sure if encountering a locked door would have made much of a difference.
Unless we armor and secure our houses like bunkers, security will only slow down those determined to do wrong.
No, didn’t do that, but I’ve driven through Johnson City enough times to know the basic lay of the city. I’m guessing there was a lot of “small town comfort”, that these things don’t happen in a small towns, etc. sort of thing.
But we know… evil things can and do happen anywhere. No place is immune.
We don’t know the full intent here… maybe that house was specifically targetted and then yes, not a lot you could do. Or maybe the guy was trolling around looking for a target. It does seem pretty clear cut the guy was certainly up to no good (with the tools and such) and premeditated and all that. But we just don’t know if it was truly a targetted event or the homeowner was just the lucky winner.
Nevertheless, you’re right… security will only slow them down. But hey, every second counts right? If it buys me more time, that’s generally to my advantage. Plus as a general rule, home security starts not with a gun but in making your home less appealing. Or to phrase it another way, to widen the “appeal gap” between yourself and every other potential target (house) in the area. If you take two houses side by side, one has a security system, locked doors, well-lit exterior, “security minded landscaping” (e.g. holly bushes in front of windows), dogs, and other such things… and then the other house doesn’t, well… not that I want my neighbors to be a target, but my job isn’t their security… it’s my job to ensure I’m as unappealing as possible. To widen the gap either because I make myself unappealing or a neighbor makes himself more appealing (e.g. habit of leaving the garage door wide open when no one is around, all those expensive tools just sitting there beckoning) well…