HOUSTON – A deputy shot a home invasion suspect in northwest Harris County on Friday.
Officials said a woman in the 5400 block of Windsor Forest heard a noise and spotted a stranger picking up a brick outside her house at 8:36 a.m. She grabbed her 2-year-old son and hid in a closet while she called 911.
The suspect was loading stolen merchandise into the woman's vehicle when deputies arrived within five minutes and confronted him, investigators said. The man then traveled toward the deputies in the fleeing vehicle, officials said.
Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia said the deputies, fearing for their lives, shot at the vehicle.
"The suspect fled approximately eight blocks away, where the individual stopped, jumped over a fence and apparently went home," Garcia said.
A suspect, Matthew O'Hara, 21, was shot three times -- in the right arm, the left arm and a graze to the left inner thigh. He is expected to survive his injuries.
Investigators said O'Hara lives in the neighborhood.
"This is why he's in jail -- because he's an idiot," Garcia said. "Not bright burglarizing a neighbor's home."
Garcia praised the mother's actions.
"(The homeowner) did exactly what we instruct folks to do -- get a phone, have a safe place, secure your family. Do not try to be a hero," Garcia said.
Garcia said he talked to the mother and her son after the ordeal was over.
"I tried to communicate with the little guy and he was unimpressed. He was more impressed with his mother, which he ought to be," Garcia said.