HOUSTON – A 14-year-old boy opens fire, killing a man who deputies say was possibly breaking into his home near Cloverleaf.
This happened at 7 a.m. in the 14400 block of Brownsville.
Investigators said the man who died was believed to be homeless.
Araceli Herrera lives next door. Her surveillance cameras captured the man walking in a ditch and onto her neighbor’s property.
“I don’t think he had any good intentions,” she said.
The sound of dogs barking alerted Araceli Herrera’s daughter to look outside.
“She looks out the window and she tells me she’s like, ‘Mom, there’s some guy in the ditch.’ I turned on the camera to see what was going on. And yeah, for sure, a guy is climbing out of the ditch,” said Herrera.
Herrera became suspicious of the man as he walked to her neighbor’s property. This was moments after she said the mother of the home just left to take her young children to school. Herrera immediately notified the mother, knowing a 14-year-old boy was home alone.
“I’m like, ‘Hey, there’s this guy with some really weird behavior that he just, you know, he was looking for something and just walked into your property right now,’” said Herrera.
Herrera noticed the gate to the family’s home was open. She watched the man knock on their front door.
“Then he walks back to the door again, knocks again, paces around a bit, and then I decide to text the mom and I’m like, the guy is still there. As I finish up the text, I look back out the window again, and at this point, that’s whenever the boy opens up the door and shoots him for the first time,” said Herrera.
Herrera said she heard three more shots. She said by that time, the mom pulled up to the home.
“He walks over to the mom and hands her the gun. It was just like, oh, my God, what just happened,” said Herrera.
A sign on the gate outside the teen’s family home reads: “I’d rather have a gun in my hand than a cop on the phone.” Herrera said crime and suspicious activity an issues in the neighborhood and most neighbors are armed.