A woman opened fired on a masturbating man trying to break into her southeast Houston home Tuesday afternoon, police said.
The Houston Chronicle reports the woman was taking out her trash around 5:15 p.m. when she spotted the man – riding his bike – masturbating, according to Houston Police Department Lt. Larry Crowson.
She yelled at him to stop the lewd act but he persisted, Crowson said.
The woman, identified by KTRK only as “Granny Jean,” recalled spotting the disturbing behavior.
“Some guy pulled off his pants and pulled his pants open, playing with his thing, and he ran up and I told him to get away from my door, or I will shoot him,” Jean said.
The man allegedly tried to break in. That’s when Jean grabbed her pistol.
“And he kept coming and reached for my door after it was locked, so I shot through the door,” Jean said.
When the man refused to stop, she fired one round through her front door, striking the man in his chest.
“I don’t bother nobody. I don’t get in nobody’s business,” Jean said. “It’s just me and him, and like I keep saying, I warned him.”
He immediately ran back to his bike and managed to pedal a few feet away from the house before collapsing, Crowson said. Paramedics rushed him to Ben Taub Hospital in critical condition. He is now expected to survive.
The woman was questioned by officers and homicide detectives but was not immediately charged, Crowson said. Investigators will work with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office to determine if charges are necessary.
“I would have done the same thing if it were my house,” said one neighbor, who asked to not be identified. “Ain’t no telling what else he was going to do or what he’s got. She was protecting her property.”
The man was out on bond for a separate exposure charge from about a week ago, Crowson said. Officers at the scene recognized him from that arrest, during which he was allegedly walking down a busy southeast Houston street in the buff.
Officers initially thought the man exposed himself to the woman’s granddaughter, but later determined that was not the case.
Her 14-year-old granddaughter was inside the home when the action unfolded, but the child did not see any of it, Crowson said. The woman was shaken up by the incident but was cooperating with detectives.
