HOUSTON – Two teenage girls hid inside a bedroom while a man broke into their home in Southeast Houston and a neighbor shot him, according to police.
Police said a man knocked on the front door of a house on Ventura near Marietta about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.
A 12-year-old girl and 14-year-old girl inside the home didn’t answer the door, police said.
Police said Damond Augbon, 19, went to the back of the home and broke in through a window.
The girls had already called their mother, who alerted police and set off the alarm, officials said. Then the teens hid in a bedroom in the front of the home, according to officials.
According to officers, a retired neighbor heard the alarm and saw Augbon taking laptops out through a back window.
Police said the neighbor told Augbon to stop -- but he refused -- and the neighbor shot him twice in the back.
Rev. Soloman William said he was asleep when he heard a loud noise.
“I heard boom, boom," William said. “I thought it was gunfire. I heard two shots."
“They broke in on some children that were home for the summer. That’s scary,” said neighbor Nita Gilbert. “I’m hoping that other people may see it that might think about this neighborhood and leave us alone because we have a good civic club, and we have good neighborhoods and we have been here for a long time, so we look out for each other and we try to take care of each other.”
At the same time, police said the girls' father broke a bedroom window where the girls were hiding and took them out.
Paramedics took Augbon to the hospital in critical but stable condition.
Police said a grand jury will likely decide if the neighbor will face charges in the shooting.
The two girls and their father went to the hospital with cuts from the window, but they’re expected to be OK.
Investigators were looking at surveillance video from inside the home to help with the case.
“The mom is pretty shaken up, but she’s relieved that her daughters are safe and that they’re OK, and she’s grateful that her neighbors are attentive. They pretty much have their own little neighborhood watch program,” said Houston Police Department Assistant Chief Sheryl Victorian.
Augbon has been charged with burglary of a habitation.
