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One Texas apartment dweller wasn’t messing around, blasting armed robbers right through the door. Nobody changes air filters on a Saturday night. The “wild scene” was caught by his doorbell.
Robbers pick wrong target
Police are happy to note that nobody was killed, including the robbers, but Ethan Rodriguez added a whole lot of lead to the local environment. The resident of Dallas, Texas, “opened fire on a pair of suspects who tried to break into his home over the weekend.”
It started when suspect Aaron Contreras knocked on the apartment door “and claimed to be a maintenance worker there to check on the filters in his air conditioner.” That’s pretty unusual, considering it was Saturday evening at the time.
Rodriguez has one of those doorbell cameras. His model gives the ability to answer the door “via a digital doorbell app on his phone.” He denied even being there and “claimed that no one was home.”
Man shoots through door at would-be burglars posing as maintenance workers: video https://t.co/13ZkrpQYWL pic.twitter.com/HEScXPRiZi
— New York Post (@nypost) August 23, 2023
Contreras walked away but soon came back with a friend and a handgun. That’s when both robbers “attempted to kick down the front door to Rodriguez’s apartment.”
The second man, “wearing a mask over his head, ran up the stairs and also tried to kick in the door.”
As he watched that unfolding on his phone, “Rodriguez grabbed his gun and opened fire from inside his apartment through the front door.” That sent both robbers running for their lives.
Fired several rounds
Mr. Rodriguez really should sign up for a gun safety class after this because he’s lucky he didn’t accidentally take out one of the neighbors. He didn’t even score on his intended targets. That shows the need for much better gun control.
Some say a more effective approach would be to time it so just as the kick is about to land, you open the door. Once you have a target flying through your living room face first, shoot the robbers to kill.
While messy, the approach Rodriguez took was still effective. “the resident fired off several rounds and the video shows bullets striking the concrete wall across the way. Contreras fired two shots in response before he fled.”
August 19, 2023, around 4:00 pm 3800 block of Gannon Ave, Interlace Apartments, Dallas Texas. Men pretending to be maintenance workers try to kick down door. Unknow if they have been captured. Video on Facebook… pic.twitter.com/kjeDPSPeY2
— D. Scott @eclipsethis2003 (@eclipsethis2003) August 21, 2023
The forensics team notes that “in total, Rodriguez fired 13 shots.” They can tell because there were 13 holes through the door from the inside. There were two coming back through from the robbers outside.
Rodriguez admits that he made the decision to shoot the robbers as soon as he saw Contreras was armed. “I was hoping I got ’em. That was mainly it, just hoping I got ’em.” He also admits that he’s really glad that “his neighbors as well as his own wife and their 7-month-old baby were not home at the time.”
Because he didn’t bother wearing a mask, “Contreras was arrested the same day on charges of aggravated assault, deadly conduct and attempted burglary of a habitation.” Rodriguez notes, “you’re dumb as f–k for not wearing a mask.” He had the guy’s name long before he was arrested. The one in the ski-mask is still at large.
