In situations like this I always wonder:  if the homeowner hadn’t had a gun of his own, would the criminals have stopped shooting, or would they have continued to shoot to eliminate the witnesses of the crime?

We won’t ever know the answer to that question as it relates to a burglary in Wilsonville, Alabama, because while the bad guys got off the first shot, the homeowner fired the more accurate one:

According to the home’s residents, the trouble began when they returned home yesterday evening to discover their home being burglarized. At least one of the suspects brandished a gun and shot the homeowner in the leg. The homeowner then returned fire, shooting one of the suspects.

Southeast Shelby Rescue paramedics and Wilsonville firemedics treated both individuals at the scene for their injuries. The homeowner was transported to a local hospital via ambulance with non-life threatening injuries. The suspect was flown to a local hospital via helicopter with more serious injuries.

A second suspect was detained by deputies at the residence and a third suspect was located a short time later. Both are being held pending formal charges.

As is so often the case, once one of the criminals is downed, the rest of the gang collapses. The details of the story are a bit lacking, but the homeowner either stopped the second burglar at gunpoint, or the burglar felt compelled to stay try to help his freshly-ventilated friend, and then presumably gave up the third criminal.

None of the local news agencies had updates on the story as of this morning, so it appears that unless he takes a turn for the worse, the wounded suspect will survive to have his day in court, along with his buddies