...Wednesday morning in Houston:
Dwayne Austgen, 69, was inside his north Harris County home in the 5500 block of Susanna around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday when he noticed a teenager in his front yard, officials said. The man went outside, confronted 17-year-old Vidal Herrera, and told him to leave, authorities said.
After the teen left the property, Austgen noticed Herrera had left a crack cocaine pipe, officials said. Austgen then went back inside his home, taking the pipe with him, officials said.
A short while later, Herrera returned to the home, confronted Austgen about the pipe, and the pair argued, officials said. Austgen, this time holding a rifle, again ordered the teen to leave, officials said.
Herrera began to walk away but then approached the homeowner, who fired the .22-caliber rifle, striking the teen in the abdomen, officials said. Herrera was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where he died.
Well now, so much for "a .22 will only piss 'em off," eh? I hope for his sake that he gets a bigger gun, though, because he might not be so lucky next time. I'm curious as to why someone who "had a difficult time" scaring off a burglar with a shotgun didn't pull the trigger on the bastard, though. Isn't the whole point of pulling a gun in a situation like that to make the aggressor fear for his life? It'd be interesting to see if that burglar went back and told his buddies, "dumb son of a bitch pulled a gun on me and didn't even pull the trigger when I didn't go away..." Which, of course, could very well only aggravate those folks' problems even though there were neighbors willing to pull that trigger. I hope for the sake of the folks who live there that what this man did calms their neighborhood and sends the message that there's at least one person there who will pull that trigger.
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