HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — A teenager shot and killed a man during a possible break-in at a home in the Cloverleaf area Thursday morning, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
A neighbor told us her surveillance camera showed the guy on Brownsville Street near Nancy Rose Street before he was shot.
"As soon as he climbs out the ditch, I'm like, 'This guy has some weird behavior,'" Araceli Herrera told us. "I've never seen him before, and I was on alert."
Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said the man, either in his late 20s or early 30s, approached the home in far east Harris County and began turning the doorknob. The scared 14-year-old was inside and home alone after his father went to work and his father's girlfriend left to drop off the younger children.
Herrera watched out her window and saw the man looking into her neighbor's house and trying to get inside. She tried to call the neighbor because she knew his son was there by himself. Then she said the boy opened the door and shot the guy.
"And I walk back away from the window and I'm like in shock." Herrera said. "I still haven't been able to stop shaking."
The teen fired at least five to six shots through the doorway, according to the sheriff.
“It’s a very traumatic situation out here," Gonzalez said. We’re talking about a 14-year-old having to use deadly force and protection of himself and his property."
The sheriff said there were two 911 calls made by other neighbors who reported that someone was trying to break into homes on the street before 7 a.m. They claimed that a man was kicking on the door and requesting money.
Gonzalez said the man may have seen people leaving the home and tried to break in. He was also wearing gloves and had a backpack.
Members of the homeless outreach team came by and said they believed the man was a homeless person who they had dealt with in the past.
The sheriff said the teen is cooperating with the investigation and he was not taken into custody.
The whole thing hit close to home for Herrera whose daughter the same age as the teen.
"If my daughter was in that situation, honestly I would be happy that my daughter was safe," Herrera told us. "And the other guy, I don't know what his intentions were."