UPI: OAK HILL, Fla. — Three burglary suspects were caught after being interrupted by a gun-firing Florida homeowner, helped by a neighbor who is an ex-boxer neighbor, police say.
Ira Roberts of Oak Hill said he fired a shot into the ground after he and his wife spotted what appeared to be several people trying to break into a small residence attached to their main home Tuesday afternoon, WESH-TV, Orlando, reported.
“I knew I couldn’t shoot them. Legally you can’t shoot them when they’re running away. So I pumped one into the ground. Which was good, it alerted all my neighbors,” Roberts told the TV station.
One of those neighbors was Beverly Rose, a former professional boxer, who sprang into action and tackled one of the fleeing suspects, Justin Goodrich, 23.
“I did make a comment to him, how he liked being caught and tackled by a 44-year-old woman; he just kept shaking his head,” Rose said.
Two other suspects — identified as Kayla Selph, 23, of New Smyrna Beach, and Alex Safford, 18, of Oak Hill — fled in a vehicle but were apprehended by authorities several miles away. A fourth suspect, James Watson, 26, of New Smyrna, was caught with the help of a police dog in nearby woods and a fifth suspect, Joseph Jones, no age or hometown, was arrested in Edgewater Wednesday morning.
All five are charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling and theft, and Watson faces an additional charge of resisting arrest without violence.
DCG