Armed Citizen Shoots Armed Fugitive During Home Invasion

Armed Citizen Shoots Armed Fugitive During Home Invasion, iStock-1354938183
Armed Citizen Shoots Armed Fugitive During Home Invasion, iStock-1354938183

U.S.A.-(AmmoLand.com)- Crime and armed defense happen everywhere. That doesn’t mean that every time and place is equally dangerous. We see career criminals re-offend. We also see more citizens who are armed in pro-gun states. Pahrump, Nevada, is home to the Nye county jail, a Nevada state prison, and an extensive firearms training center. As you might expect, this homeowner was armed last week when a repeat offender broke into his home. This defender did the right thing at the right time.

The homeowner was asleep in his bed a little after 9:30 at night. He was woken by a noise coming from his kitchen. The homeowner got out of bed and grabbed his handgun. The defender had his gun in his hands when the intruder kicked down his bedroom door. The homeowner shot the intruder twice in the upper-center chest as the intruder came through the fatal funnel of the doorway. The intruder immediately fell to the floor. The defender stopped shooting. He stayed at the scene and called 911 for help.

News reports don’t mention when the homeowner put away his firearm. The homeowner met law enforcement when they arrived. He also gave the officers a brief statement.

Emergency Medical Services began treatment of the attacker. He was first driven to a local transport pad and then flown by a medical helicopter to the nearest level 1 trauma center in Las Vegas. The attacker was immediately placed in critical care.

Police identified the firearm that the armed attacker was carrying. It was a shotgun stolen the night before during a home invasion at another address. The intruder was also identified as Shawn Richards. Richards has a history of criminal convictions. If he survives, he will be charged with home invasion, grand larceny of a firearm, burglary, being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, and probation violations.

Nevada is a castle doctrine state, so the local prosecutor has the legal burden to prove that the defender did not face an immediate, lethal, and unavoidable threat of death or great bodily injury in his home. Nevada is also a stand-your-ground state, meaning the defender did not have a legal duty to retreat. According to the Nye county sheriff’s office, the homeowner will not face any charges.

This story is one of many that goes underreported by the mainstream media because it shows a positive image of a law-abiding gun owner using that tool to defend their life and family. It is our responsibility at AmmoLand to report these stories to you the reader. While we will continue to report these stories, groups like the Crime Prevention Research Center, led by Dr. John Lott, are fastidious in studying the use of firearms for self-defense. Stay up to date with all news on self-defense by following CPRC and Ammoland.

Original News Sources-


About Rob Morse

Rob Morse writes about gun rights at Ammoland, at Clash Daily, at Second Call Defense, and on his SlowFacts blog. He hosts the Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast and co-hosts the Polite Society Podcast. Rob was an NRA pistol instructor and combat handgun competitor.Rob Morse

Rob Morse
52 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
OlTrailDog

I certainly hope they pass a gun law that makes it illegal for a felon to break into someone’s home, steal a shotgun, break into another home, and attack a citizen in their bedroom. You just never know what malfeasance a gun is going to commit next. I just don’t get why the perp didn’t stand on the porch and torch off a couple of shotgun blasts into the air to first scare the homeowner off, aka Joe Biden style?

TGP389

“There oughtta be a law!”

Steve

Dang – who pays for all the bloodstains to be removed by ServPro? You know, like it never even happened…lol

DunRanull

Bwahahaha!!! Mr Smarty-pants! lol

uncle dudley

I will be interested to see if the TV show On Patrol will cover this story since they do cover Nye County as part of their show.
Glad the homeowner was safe.

Bubba

I was thinking the same thing.
That show should be a 24 hour show with 20 channels to choose from.
Although they started time delaying it. 🙁

Deplorable Bill

The homeowner was right to get armed AND STAY PUT behind a closed, locked?, door. He had the advantage, he knows his house and the bad guy doesn’t. When the door was kicked in the homeowner gave him two in the chest but forgot about the one in the head. Had this been a bad guy coming after a cop we would be reading about a mag dump of near fifteen rounds. Unless the guy was on the way to the floor, with the shotgun clearly out of his hands, the better choice would have been to keep shooting until… Read more »

Bigfootbob

I’m not sure about mag dumps either. Even though ammo is down from its most recent high, ammo is expensive. You don’t want to be wasteful, right?

However, There’s a reason why my house gun holds 30 rounds, just sayin’.

DunRanull

A “mag dump” would leave one with some ‘splainin to do.. I knew a guy some years back who worked in a late-night liquor store situated in one-nuh them “dicey neighborhoods”.. The area was no stranger to armed robberies, mugging rape and murder. Well late one evening a misfortuneate thug entered the place with a shotgun waving around… my acquaintance opened up with a Browning HiPower- a mag dump of 14 rounds (mostly) center of mass. When the polizei questioned him as to WHY on earth had he fired so many times he told them that “Once the shooting started”… Read more »

swmft

they listen in now and take down your call sign ,sounds more like eastern europe under cold war than america

Hazcat

When did this happen? “9:30 at night” leaves about 150 years as possibilities.

Steve

Whenever it happened, it does make a nice Christmas story..

Tionico

details and context narrow it down to somewhere in the past twenty years, more probably the past five. Personally I would guess post covidiocy.

BobS

The linked Pahrump Valley Times story (dateline December 20, 2022) says “Deputies and detectives responded… at approximately 9:42 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 15.” That’s specific enough for me.

swmft

lets keep fingers crossed for one less

Finnky

Can you imagine the taxpayer money being 3xpended on medical care of the perp? While $20k (???) for lifeflight May sound expensive, it’s but a nit next to level-1 trauma care! Two in upper chest makes me wonder more specifically- also wonder whether homeowner was using FMJ or cheap HP that fails to expand.

if ever forced to protect yourself, aim smart, shoot straight and carry enough gun with appropriate ammo.

Steve

My thoughts on that too Finnky. At that distance, a .45 using Hornady Critical Defense or something equivalent – 230 grain JHP – yeah, Shawn buddy would not be transported anywhere except the coroners office.

Bigfootbob

I was wondering the same. I would guess the homeowner shot the perp with a small caliber handgun since Brandon has told us that the deadly 9mm round to the chest would blow out the perps lungs.

gsteele

Right – every Democrat politician knows that a 9mm is a fully-automatic weapon of war with pistol grip and barrel shroud that goes up, so it can blow the lungs out and cook the perp with incendiary bullets. To reduce CO2, the homeowners should be required to douse burning perp lungs when they use those military machine gun weapons like 9mm shotguns against underprivileged felons just looking for a meal on a cold night through no fault of their own. Those Dems are experts on these matters.

TGP389

Yeah, but an AR-15’s bullet travels 5x as fast as any other gun’s bullet…

Tionico

Yeah, I recnelty drove my own hurtong self to a hosital AR where tey took a three view plainfil X ray of my smashed finger, another guy looked at the film and for six hindred bucks pronounced one bone broken. Yet a third guy brougnt in a needle and thread and made five VERY crude stitches to sort of close up the split. Total bill six grand. And six hours of MY time. When the bill came in the post I about fell out of my chair. In “justification” for some of the outrageous charges (preventive care, $175.. not itemised)… Read more »

TGP389

Hah! You got nothing on me. After being hit from the rear while stopped at a traffic light about 5 years back, I had some chest pains. My car was totaled, so I elected to ride a meat wagon to the hospital. In the hospital ER, I saw a PA, not a doc. They did a CT, wrote a prescription for Flexeril and discharged me. My bill? Slightly over $41,000. We have to pay for illegals using the ER for head cold and menstrual cramps somehow, you know. I threw the bill in the trash, but the insurance companies settled… Read more »

Bigfootbob

It never ends. I started working in high school in 1969. Just about the time the stupid socialists in the national government decided that employers should make health insurance an operating budget item for the employer. A very stupid move we’re still paying for today. Fast forward to 1991. I was helping a King County private investigator search the Green River between Kanaskat State Park to the Green River Gorge if you’ve ever been there, it’s remarkably beautiful while simultaneously being one of Washington’s most infamous locations because Gary Ridgeway. I slipped and compound fractured my right ankle and had… Read more »

Last edited 1 year ago by Bigfootbob
Finnky

Employers providing health insurance did not come about due to “socialist national government.” In fact you can thank Republicans, more specifically Nixon.
Way back then they responded to inflation by imposing price controls, more notably wage limits. Employers could not raise salaries to attract best workers, so they turned to “benefits.” At that time health care didn’t cost all that much, so health insurance was an easy choice. They also pushed pensions as loose governmental control meant they didn’t book the real costs. Like social security, fixing problems causes significant pain.

Bubba

Should have just waited another 30 minutes before calling the chopper.

swmft

my carries are 45s as well 9mm just does not do enough dammage

BillyBobTexas

IF, you are in the only bedroom with people in it….LOCK YOUR BEDROOM DOOR when you go to sleep!! Make the perp make enuff noise trying to get into your bedroom to wake you up. This story guy was fortunately already wakened.

swmft

vermont is having that and the rivers that have hydro are freezing,my sister was without power 30 hours ; glad im in florida

Bigfootbob

Sitting here in the dark. Second time in a week. “Damaged equipment “. We know what that means.

Christmas Day over 7k were out because someone vandalized a substation in Spanaway. There’s 10k+ that’s been effected last time and this time too.

Western Coastal Washington. We’re not like the metrosexuals over east in Pugetopolis. Somebody’s gonna get hurt if this continues.

Bigfootbob

Thanks. I’m going to have to invest in a backup battery for my 14’ RV Barn door opener. I keep my company car in there. It’s too damn big to unlatch the lift and open that monster by hand, maybe 20 years ago, but not now. I share your opinion about how the bastard media is reporting on this, you would think that this would require truthful reporting, right? I heard Steve Raible, the Voice of the Seahawks, say once about his other gig as the local nightly news talking head anchor that when he was doing the newscasts he… Read more »

swmft

a 4000 wat inverter would let him turn on the lights too charge the battery with a small solar panel good to go

swmft

he could use jumpers and charge battery off the workcar, just not safe to start the car with door closed and fuel enrichment for the cold

swmft

buy a proptery with a river or stream on or beside it set up a torrent generator , never be without power

swmft

the spring is on my land ,was thinking of fitting the torrent in the spring, but did not do to design of generator

swmft

the reason for the big diesel, I remember the big southern drought where the everglades were burning , I have a deep well for water backup

swmft

I have a big diesel I bought from government auction ,but put in a torrent water generator so the diesel only runs when I am doing a lot in the shop and need 3phase

swmft

and the cnc,and the 20ton drillpress….you can almost use a spoon to drill a hole with it set to 1/2rpm

swmft

I can make whatever frame i want no big deal, have done a m1 garand still need to put it in carbon dust and kiln to harden it but all the parts fit ,figuring the broaching cut was hard even with the cnc …a forging is easier on some things I made a lot of scrap

swmft

nice diamond drill sharpener, preset angle ,and oddly adjustable and yes I keep extra bits and mill parts, I do want to buy a hammer forge but would have to build a space for it so not really practical

swmft

you are not paranoid if it is true…….

swmft

they have problems with back feeds after every hurricane people do not know anything about electricity

DunRanull

Now watch the SOB sue the homeowner!

swmft

any leftist state east or west

swmft

waiting for manufactures to get epa another black eye like the last one congress did not make this law has no bases in law suck an egg

swmft

the only way for their idea to work would be someone figuring out how to draw electricity directly from the air..tesla coil buy one and never pay for power again …pipe dream but most people are stupid, have you seen a wind turban fail? it is spectacular and causes lots of contamination fire can spread, one of the California wild fires seems to have been started this way

swmft

or you create a democrat
left out horse shit, we know they are full of that

Last edited 1 year ago by swmft
swmft

there does not need to be a brain or guts just hot air and horse shit

swmft

you are right there, just never heard anyone say full of ass shit

swmft

that is the other ingredient in a democrat chicken shit

swmft

Idont know if you remember the sunspots activity that blacked out most of the country in the 70s the load safe guards caused many power plants to go offline domino effect ,I lived neer a peaker plant that came on line so fast it blew out a steam tank, took out a wall of the building

swmft

they hardened some sites , but if they dont protect them all same thing happens

Ledesma

Well don’t just sit there liberals! Ban Something!