A pair of burglars in Downey, CA, targeted the wrong home to invade early Monday morning, running headlong into the homeowner, who happened to be an armed and unhappy LAPD officer.

An off-duty Los Angeles Police Department officer shot and wounded two people who reportedly tried burglarizing his home early Monday.

The two suspects and the officer were rushed to the hospital, Fox 11 reported. The shooting unfolded around 1 a.m. in Downey, southeast of LA.

The LAPD Olympic Division officer was apparently assaulted in his home, prompting him to open fire.

The incident happened about 1 a.m. at a house in the 7800 block of Borson Street, according to a statement from the Downey Police Department, which was investigating. When the officer confronted the pair of suspects, the news release said, he “was assaulted and discharged his weapon.”

The intruders were each struck by gunfire and transported to hospitals, according to authorities. LAPD Capt. Andy Neiman said their injuries were not life-threatening.

The officer, who works out of the LAPD’s Olympic Division, suffered minor injuries and was also treated at a hospital, Downey police said. He and the two suspects were each listed in stable condition.

It’s probable that the officer reacted to the situation and responded by defaulting to his training, as we tend to do under moments of high stress.

Depending on precisely how he was trained, he would have brought his non-dominant hand up, elbow forward in a “rhino horn” (above) to protect his head from blows, and then fired his pistol from retention position, as demonstrated by the late, great firearms trainer Paul Gomez.

Shooting from retention sends shots into the lower abdomen at close range. Someone in this position would then likely swivel his hips to turn his entire trunk to engage the second attack in a like manner, again putting shots into the lower abdomen, and in this instance, winning the fight.

While these are not the high center chest shots we generally see taught in most range drills, the goal of shooting from retention is to injure an opponent who is attacking you enough so that you can disengage from close combat and create space. You shoot from retention, then move away from the suspect while keeping your eyes on him as he contemplates his new and leaking orifices. You then have (hopefully) 3-5 yards to bring your gun up and contemplate more precise aimed fire if the situation dictates discharging more rounds to stop the threat.

It seems likely that the LAPD officer in this incident was able to drop the two assailants when firing from retention, moved away from his attackers, and found that he didn’t need to reengage them. He called 911, and they were taken into custody.

Nicely done, officer.