HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — A suspected peeping Tom is in critical but stable condition after a couple confronted him early Monday outside their 10-year-old daughter’s window and the girl’s father shot him multiple times.
Deputies with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to KTRK that the husband and wife, who have not been publicly identified, stated that they intercepted an intoxicated prowler who was inappropriately touching himself outside their young daughter’s window after 2 a.m.
“She looks over at the window, and this guy is at her window. … He took my daughter’s innocence away,” the girl’s mother, who did not want to be identified, told KPRC.
Meanwhile, the father told KTRK that his daughter had complained in the past about seeing someone watching her through the window, but neither he nor his wife were ever successful at locating anyone on the premises before Monday morning.
The couple, who armed themselves with legal handguns before exiting their home, attempted to detain the man in their yard, but deputies said the prowler walked across the street to a gas station, and they followed him, KPRC reported.
According to the TV station, the father entered the gas station to ask employees to call 911, while his wife held her gun on the suspect in the parking lot, but a struggle ensued. When the husband exited the convenience store, the suspect had wrestled his wife’s gun away and was pointing it at her. That’s when the husband fired his gun on the suspect.
Deputies stated that the husband shot the suspect three times, but he told KTRK that he believed he shot the prowler twice in the chest, once in the stomach and once in the side.
No one else was wounded in the shooting, and deputies confirmed that the case will be referred to a grand jury, the TV station reported.
“We didn’t want this guy to get shot. We were waiting for police to detain him because I’m pretty sure if he did this to my children, he’s doing it to a lot of other children out here,” the 10-year-old girl’s mother told KPRC.
“We are praying for the suspect and we are also praying for his family,” she added.