Key Takeaways
- A concealed carry holder in South Shore shot a man attempting to break into her home early Tuesday morning.
- The 30-year-old man removed a screen from the woman’s window, prompting her to fire one shot, injuring him in the arm.
- Emergency responders arrived after a neighbor called 911, while the man later sought treatment at a hospital and was in good condition.
- Police classify this incident as a burglary attempt and emphasize the potential threat posed by the situation.
- Charges against the 30-year-old suspect are pending as police continue the investigation.
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CHICAGO, IL — A 49-year-old concealed carry holder shot a man who pulled the screen off a window of her South Shore home during a burglary attempt early Tuesday morning, Chicago police said.
The 30-year-old man walked up to the home in the 1500 block of East 73rd Street around 4:50 a.m. and opened the screen while standing on the front porch, according to CPD, as reported by CWB Chicago. The woman was inside. She armed herself and fired one shot, striking him in the arm.
A neighbor called 911 to report a man lying on the ground across the street from the home, screaming that he had been shot. He was gone by the time officers arrived. Moments later he walked into Jackson Park Hospital on his own for treatment, and police said he was in good condition. The woman was not injured.
Police are describing this as a burglary attempt, and that characterization is doing real work. This was not a knock at the door or a man wandering the block. Someone worked the screen off a window of a house at ten minutes to five in the morning, which is the point at which an entry is underway rather than being considered.
Deadly force is justified only against an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm, and that is the same standard armed citizens across the country carry under every day. A stranger opening a window on an occupied home in the dark gives the person on the other side no way to know what comes through it next, and no time to find out. The screen is not what mattered here. What mattered is that a man was making a hole in an occupied house at 4:50 a.m. and there was a woman standing behind it.
More from USA Carry:
The detail I keep coming back to is that she had her firearm and got to it in time. She did not have to cross the house in the dark to another room, or work a lock while listening to a window frame come apart. That is the mindset piece, and it is the whole margin between having options at that hour and having none.
Police said charges against the 30-year-old man were pending. Neither he nor the woman has been publicly identified, an allegation is not a conviction, and Cook County prosecutors, not the responding officers, make the final determination on any charging decision arising out of the shooting. The account above is the police department’s.
