Saginaw, Texas is generally a pretty quiet place. The Fort Worth suburb, home to about 24,000 people, isn’t known for its violent crime. In fact, those types of incidents are pretty few and far between, but they do still happen. Given that we’re talking about Texas, any would-be bad actors run the risk of running into an armed citizen during the commission of their crimes, which I believe does act as a deterrent to some degree. But some folks will always be willing to risk it, and as it turns out, in the past week two different Saginaw residents have had to use their lawfully owned firearms to protect themselves against violent actors.
Saginaw police are investigating two fatal shootings in the city that happened during attempted break-ins in the same neighborhood over the last week, officials said.
Police said the shootings weren’t related, but both happened blocks apart near Silverbrook Drive and Old Decatur Road.
In both incidents, a resident fatally shot a suspected intruder. Police have not released the names of the two people who died.
The most recent shooting happened shortly before 4 a.m. Monday in the 600 block of Babbling Brook Drive, where officers responded to a report of shots fired.
When police arrived, they found a man dead on the porch with multiple gunshot wounds.
Officers talked with the home’s resident, who said they woke up about 3:50 a.m. to someone banging on their front door. They asked them to leave, and the man began to walk away.
The man then turned around and “rushed the resident,” according to the news release. That’s when the resident fired shots at the man, striking him.
Police are still investigating the shooting, and no charges have been filed.
An earlier shooting in Saginaw happened shortly before midnight on Oct. 26, when a burglary was reported in the 600 block of Oak Hollow Trail.
A man who lived at the home had called 911 to report that a person forced his way into the home. The resident said he shot the intruder, according to police.
When officers arrived at the home, they found a man dead inside the entry way with multiple gunshot wounds.
The burglar who was shot and killed last week allegedly had several accomplices, and police have identified a 14-year old as one of the additional suspects. Authorities say in that case the would-be intruders apparently knew their victims, though it’s unclear what led them to target the home and the residents inside.
The details are sketchier when it comes to the shooting that took place on Monday night, though it would appear from reports that the homeowner didn’t recognize or know the man who arrived on his doorstep and tried to get inside. There are definitely some unanswered questions here, but it looks like at the moment police haven’t found any evidence that the homeowner wasn’t acting in self-defense as he claims.
This isn’t the first time in recent months that we’ve covered multiple defensive gun uses in the same small town over a short period of time. In fact, just last week we wrote about two other armed citizen stories in a suburb of Dayton, Ohio who were forced to act in self defense in two separate incidents just hours and a few miles apart.
In two separate attempted crimes just hours apart, armed citizens in Trotwood, Ohio were apparently able to protect themselves on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. It was about 9:15 last evening when police got a call about a shooting an apartment complex. Officers arrived and found a man with non-life threatening gunshot wounds laying in the parking lot; a man described by authorities on the scene as being “uncooperative” with police. As it turns out, there was probably a good reason why the man didn’t want to talk to cops; he was violating a protective order when he was shot.
It was just a few hours later when police received another call of a shooting involving a homeowner just a few miles from where the earlier defensive gun use had taken place.
Keep in mind, the only reason that we learned about any of these four defensive gun uses is because the would-be attacker or intruder was shot and killed. The vast majority of incidents of armed self-defense don’t involve pulling the trigger at all, and rarely if ever result in any media attention.
Clusters like these, on the other hand, are hard for the media to ignore. My hope is that the news coverage in the Dallas/Fort Worth media market will not only encourage more citizens to think about their own personal safety, but will also serve as a reminder to anyone who might be debating the risks and rewards of breaking into someone else’s home that it’s a really bad idea to do so when your intended victims possess the means and the right of self-defense.
