SEATTLE — Detectives with the Seattle Police Department are investigating a deadly shooting in the Greenwood neighborhood after a homeowner shot and killed an alleged burglar.
At about 2:35 a.m., someone called 911 to report a disturbance at their neighbor’s house, located near the 900 block of North 101st Street, and said they heard a person asking someone to call 911.
Officers responded to the home and found a man with a gunshot wound in the backyard.
Police began first aid, before transferring care to Seattle Fire Department medics, who transported the man to Harborview Medical Center, where he later died from his injuries.
The homeowner told police that the victim had climbed over the fence and into his yard.
When the homeowner went outside to confront the man, he refused to leave. The homeowner said he then shot him.
SPD homicide detectives will interview the homeowner and are investigating this shooting.
KIRO 7 spoke with one neighbor who questioned whether the homeowner was within his rights to shoot the alleged intruder.
“Where was the individual shot? Was it in the front?” asked Kylian Se Vanter. “Was he retreating?
“Were there any attempts to shoot them below the legs to incapacitate as opposed to just execute them right from the jump?”
Under Washington state law, when it comes to violent crimes like burglary, a person can protect themselves, their family or their property by any reasonable means necessary. No person has a “duty to retreat” when they’re assaulted in a place they have the right to be in.
Another neighbor who lives two blocks from where the shooting happened said other violent crimes had happened recently in the neighborhood.
“From what I heard, it was last week someone had climbed onto these fences and broke into one of the buildings and went upstairs and ransacked somebody’s office,” said Grims Gislason. “Right on Aurora or real close to it, it’s kind of lively these days.”
Crime data from the Seattle Police Department shows that between January and May, 78 burglaries have been reported in the Greenwood neighborhood.
“Different times, these days,” said Gislason.