California woman shoots, kills drunken intruder to protect husband, deputies say

PATTERSON, Calif. — A California woman fatally shot an intoxicated home intruder over the weekend to protect her husband, deputies said.

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According to KCRA and KTVU, the incident occurred shortly before 10:30 p.m. Saturday at a home on Ashwood Lane in Patterson. The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office said Patterson Police Services responded to a report of a shooting and arrived to find Angelo Santana, 22, of Patterson, dead near the home’s entrance.

After reviewing surveillance videos and interviewing witnesses, investigators determined that Santana had become “heavily intoxicated and tried to force entry into the home,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.

During the attempted home invasion, one of the home’s owners, 45-year-old Yang Luan, tried “to physically restrain Santana and was involved in a significant fight near the threshold of the front door,” the post read. As the scuffle continued, Luan’s wife, 50-year-old Yuhui Zheng, grabbed a gun that she had obtained the previous day and opened fire at Santana, deputies said. Santana, who was unarmed, died from his injuries, authorities said.

The Sheriff’s Office said nobody has been arrested in connection with the shooting, which “was an example of strictly self-defense,” according to investigators’ preliminary findings.

The department added that witnesses said Santana “had a history of alcohol substance abuse, wherein he would regularly show up unannounced trying to find friends and acquaintances of his in the same neighborhood,” according to the Facebook post.

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