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Cove homeowner fatally shoots intruder
Posted on: Saturday, January 05, 2008, 2:23 AM
By Victor O'Brien
Killeen Daily Herald
A Copperas Cove man fatally shot a suspected intruder during a home invasion Friday afternoon.
Police were called at 3:40 p.m. to the 2200 block of Boland Drive in Copperas Cove, where they found a male, believed to be an intruder, who had been shot in the torso multiple times, a Copperas Cove Police Department news release said.
The male was transported to Darnall Army Medical Center on Fort Hood, where he later died.
The suspected intruder's identity is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
An investigation revealed that the shooting victim had entered the home illegally and fought with the homeowner, who then fatally shot the intruder, stated the news release.
Rachel Waeltz, an eyewitness, said she was feeding her 2-year-old son across the street from where the shooting happened when she saw a woman come out of the residence screaming in the direction of a Copperas Cove officer who had just arrived on the scene.
While the woman was talking to the officer, Waeltz said she heard six to eight shots fired from the backyard.
Waeltz said the officer ran in when he heard the shots and the woman followed behind.
A few minutes later, a man walked out the front door and sat down on a truck, and the other man was taken away in an ambulance, Waeltz said.
"It's freaky," Waeltz said about the incident happening across the street. "I was really scared for the first hour (after the shooting)."
Waeltz and her husband, who was not home at the time of the shooting, said the neighborhood is quiet and everyone pretty much goes about their own business.
Both said they did not know the neighbors across the street other than that they had lived in the house for several years.
"It's a great neighborhood. We moved from Killeen to here because Killeen is a lot worse," Danny Waeltz said.
Jim Durocher has rented a room in the home behind the house where the shooting took place since 1993. During the shooting, two bullets were fired through the privacy fence in his backyard.
"We just heard shots," Durocher said. "It's always been a real quiet neighborhood."
He said, however, that things have changed in the mostly military community since he moved there in 1993.
"We used to leave our doors and cars unlocked, but now we don't," Durocher said.
In spite of Friday's shooting, Danny Waeltz said he believes the neighborhood is safe and this crime was an isolated incident that will not happen again.
"Stuff like that's gonna happen," Waeltz said. "It's not gonna make me any more cautious."
The case is still under investigation.
An autopsy was ordered by Bell County Justice of the Peace Garland Potvin at the Southwest Institute of Forensic Science in Dallas.
http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=21834
Posted on: Saturday, January 05, 2008, 2:23 AM
By Victor O'Brien
Killeen Daily Herald
A Copperas Cove man fatally shot a suspected intruder during a home invasion Friday afternoon.
Police were called at 3:40 p.m. to the 2200 block of Boland Drive in Copperas Cove, where they found a male, believed to be an intruder, who had been shot in the torso multiple times, a Copperas Cove Police Department news release said.
The male was transported to Darnall Army Medical Center on Fort Hood, where he later died.
The suspected intruder's identity is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
An investigation revealed that the shooting victim had entered the home illegally and fought with the homeowner, who then fatally shot the intruder, stated the news release.
Rachel Waeltz, an eyewitness, said she was feeding her 2-year-old son across the street from where the shooting happened when she saw a woman come out of the residence screaming in the direction of a Copperas Cove officer who had just arrived on the scene.
While the woman was talking to the officer, Waeltz said she heard six to eight shots fired from the backyard.
Waeltz said the officer ran in when he heard the shots and the woman followed behind.
A few minutes later, a man walked out the front door and sat down on a truck, and the other man was taken away in an ambulance, Waeltz said.
"It's freaky," Waeltz said about the incident happening across the street. "I was really scared for the first hour (after the shooting)."
Waeltz and her husband, who was not home at the time of the shooting, said the neighborhood is quiet and everyone pretty much goes about their own business.
Both said they did not know the neighbors across the street other than that they had lived in the house for several years.
"It's a great neighborhood. We moved from Killeen to here because Killeen is a lot worse," Danny Waeltz said.
Jim Durocher has rented a room in the home behind the house where the shooting took place since 1993. During the shooting, two bullets were fired through the privacy fence in his backyard.
"We just heard shots," Durocher said. "It's always been a real quiet neighborhood."
He said, however, that things have changed in the mostly military community since he moved there in 1993.
"We used to leave our doors and cars unlocked, but now we don't," Durocher said.
In spite of Friday's shooting, Danny Waeltz said he believes the neighborhood is safe and this crime was an isolated incident that will not happen again.
"Stuff like that's gonna happen," Waeltz said. "It's not gonna make me any more cautious."
The case is still under investigation.
An autopsy was ordered by Bell County Justice of the Peace Garland Potvin at the Southwest Institute of Forensic Science in Dallas.
http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=21834
