Home Intruder Shot Dead

This incident occurred last Wednesday, I did not comment on it as details were sketchy. Today the Star Telegram has filled in some of the blanks.

By MELODY McDONALD

FORT WORTH - A 22-year-old man was fatally shot early Wednesday after he forced his way into his ex-girlfriend's house and started kicking in the door of the bedroom where she and her boyfriend were sleeping, police said.

Police said the woman's boyfriend, 29, grabbed a handgun and started firing, hitting Sammien Chopp once in the left chest as he pushed into the room.

The shot was not immediately fatal:

After the shooting, police said, Chopp got into a 1990 white Jaguar and tried to drive to a hospital.

Shortly before 8:30 a.m., a patrol officer saw the Jaguar driving erratically along the northbound service road of Interstate 35W just south of Berry Street. When it stopped in a traffic lane, Thornton said, the officer got out of his patrol car, put the Jaguar in park and discovered that the driver had been shot.

An ambulance took Chopp to John Peter Smith hospital, where he died at 9:14 a.m.

This next paragraph is not very clear on who called 911. It appears that a neighbor called 911, not the occupants of the house where the incident occurred. If that is the case, that was a very big mistake (the first of a couple). If you are involved in a defensive shooting, you need to be the one to call 911. It is not just your responsibility, it goes a long way towards painting yourself as the good guy in the eyes of the police and the district attorney (LawDog has more on what to do after a shooting here).

In the meantime, police received a call from a house in the 5600 block of De Cory Road, where Chopp had been shot. At the time they did not know it was related to the man in the Jaguar.

The man who shot Chopp had left after the shooting, but police called him, and he voluntarily went to the Police Department.

"We interviewed him and he was released based on the statement he gave and the statement of the witnesses," Thornton said, declining to release the man's name because he was not arrested.

The good guy left the scene and had to be called by the police. A great big NO NO. He is very lucky that he has not been charged with anything. Leaving the scene is probably the worst thing you could do after a defensive shooting.

This may explain why the D.A. and the police have taken the good guys word even though he left the scene:

According to court records, Chopp has several convictions for drugs and one for evading arrest. At the time of his death, he was awaiting trial on two drug charges, one for unlawful firearm possession, one for resisting arrest and one for assault causing bodily injury.

You can read the article in it's entirety here.