MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Police say they have one woman in custody after she saw a man break into her car and took matters into her own hands with a gun.
Police responded to a shooting Thursday morning at the Brentwood Place Apartments off Sycamore View.
Brande Cole said she parked her maroon SUV outside her apartment unit when she got home from work around 6 a.m., but she had no idea what would happen about 30 minutes later.
“They say he used a hanger or something to pop my lock, and he broke the window of my neighbor’s car,” Cole said.
That neighbor saw the break-ins happening, she said, and shot the man in his arm.
“He got caught around the corner. My neighbor actually shot him,” Cole said. “We heard someone screaming, ‘Help me.’ I ran back there, my sister ran out. The girl had a gun in her hand. He was laying on the ground. She was shaking and said someone else call the police because they weren’t responding fast enough for her.”
The man was taken from the scene in an ambulance.
But when police responded, they actually took the shooter — the woman whose car was broken into — though she hasn’t been charged.
“I think it’s scary if you go outside and someone is breaking into your stuff and you don’t know if he has a gun or not. So with adrenaline running through, you just react,” Cole said. “I don’t think she should get in trouble for it, though.”
But others say she took too big a risk.
“It’s good she caught him, but I think that’s just too much,” a neighbor said.
In this case, the burglar did not attack back.
Cole said she’s glad the man didn’t have any weapons. “Are you gonna take on this person and get hurt or take on this person and take him down?”
They say especially around the holidays, you just never know how desperate someone will be.
Police say they haven’t filed any charges yet, but they are actively investigating.
