INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – An Indiana homeowner fatally shot a man attempting to invade his home in the middle of the night on July 29th. The incident occurred on West 34th Street in Indianapolis in the area of the community of Speedway.
Howard Murphy, the homeowner, heard someone break into a side window of his home, so he grabbed his firearm, went downstairs and confronted the intruder. The intruder, 64-year-old Steve Sheppard, only made it to the living room where the homeowner found Sheppard going through personal effects.
The two men were not familiar with one another, but when Sheppard realized he had been caught, threw a video game system at the homeowner which prompted the homeowner to open fire.
The intruder was found to have been armed with a knife but was hit with a round before he was able to use the knife. After being shot, the intruder ran upstairs and succumbed to his injuries in the home.
“I hate that it happened,” Murphy told WANE. “I hope these other guys learn a lesson from it. If not, there’s plenty of spots over in Crown Hill [Cemetery]. I don’t want it to be like that, but just like the average worker, I work hard for what I’ve got. If you come and take it, there’s consequences behind that.”
This is the third time that Murphy’s home has been invaded. Just earlier that week, Murphy lost thousands of dollars of electronics in a break in, and before that he lived in the same home in 2014 where his home was invaded, and Murphy shot that intruder.
“It’s depressing because, you know, you work so hard to get what you want, for somebody to come in and just take it,” Murphy said to WRTV. “You shouldn’t have to be armed inside of your own house. It’s sad, but it is like that over there in this neighborhood.”
In Speedway, the property crime rate is approximately twice the national average.
