Mesquite Resident Wakes to Loud Banging at 4:15 A.M., Shoots Man Entering the Home, Police Say
Key Takeaways
- A Mesquite resident shot an intruder early Saturday morning after hearing loud banging outside.
- Police found the intruder, Arthur Alonzo, injured and charged him with burglary after the incident.
- The resident acted in self-defense, as he did not know the intruder’s intentions when entering the home.
- Police have not released the resident’s identity or announced any charges against him.
- The investigation is ongoing, and the presumption of innocence applies to Alonzo.
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MESQUITE, TX — A Mesquite resident woke to loud banging early Saturday morning, got up to check on the noise, and shot a man who was entering the home, according to the Mesquite Police Department.
Officers were called to a shooting around 4:15 a.m. in the 2600 block of Brushwood Lane, as reported by CBS Texas. When they arrived, they found a man outside the residence with a gunshot wound and started first aid.
The residents told police the banging woke them up. One of them went to investigate. That resident saw someone entering the home and fired, striking the man, police said.
That sequence is the whole story. Loud banging at an occupied house at four in the morning, followed by a person coming inside, is not a question about belongings. The people in that home had no way to know who was coming in, why, or what he was carrying. What police describe is a resident acting in defense of himself and the others in the house while a stranger was already crossing the threshold.
Police identified the wounded man as Arthur Alonzo. He was taken into custody on a charge of burglary of a habitation and transported by paramedics to a local hospital. Police have not released his condition, and the investigation is ongoing.
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Getting out of bed and walking toward a noise is the hardest version of this problem. There is no warning and no time to plan. The resident had to figure out what was happening and act in the seconds it took the man to come through. That is a mindset problem before it is a gear problem, and it is why I keep telling people the decision has to be made before the banging starts, not during it.
Police have not identified the resident, and no charges against the resident have been announced. The burglary charge against Alonzo is an allegation, and he is presumed innocent unless convicted.
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