Home Intruder Brings A Knife To A Gun Fight — 50/50 Guess How It Ends

NORWALK, CALIFORNIA — Waking up at 2:30 a.m., a female occupant of a home in Norwalk was alerted to a potential home invasion when she heard noises coming from the front door. Finding no success with the front door, the alleged burglar moved around to double French doors in the back. He broke in and emerged with a knife in his hands.

A male occupant was thankfully armed. He shot the intruder once in the torso. The alleged suspect fled the scene but was picked up only a block away. Police had to take him to a nearby hospital for emergency medical treatment. San Gabriel Valley Tribune listed the intruder’s condition as stable.

Home intruders don’t have to be clever. They just need to be violent and fast. While any experienced thief worth his salt would use the cover of darkness and silence to achieve a non-violent ending, most armed burglars don’t worry about all that.

That’s a problem for a homeowner or a tenant. An easy solution is to stay armed and keep a gun close-by even while at home. This ensures that if you’re awoken in the dead of night, you can quickly respond.

If there’s family or other tenants, it’s always good to at least have a chat and have a contingency plan laid out. Who knows the disposition of the people coming to break in and it’s best if everyone knows where to stay put until police arrive.

Make no mistake — a person wielding a knife is a deadly threat. When police are minutes away, a handgun only takes seconds to resolve a deadly force conflict.