FAIRFIELD, Calif. — In the third similar incident in the local area within a week, a homeowner has shot and killed a home intruder.
Lt. Jausiah Jacobsen with the Fairfield Police Department told ABC10 that the incident happened at around 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning at a home in the 600 block of Vintage Valley Dr. in Fairfield. The area is largely residential.
According to Jacobsen, the suspect, who has not been identified, first knocked on the door of the home.
The homeowners, who Jacobsen said are in their 60s, had a doorbell camera system and did not recognize the individual. They did not answer the door.
"And then ultimately after that, the suspect actively started kicking the door and he did kick the door off the hinges and then started to make entry into the home," Jacobsen said.
One of the homeowners had a registered gun and shot the suspect, who ran into the street. When Fairfield officers arrived, they began life-saving measures, but were ultimate unsuccessful. The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene.
"They did find that he was in possession of a loaded, semi-automatic handgun that had an extended magazine," Jacobsen said.
Jacobsen added that detectives are still working to figure out why the home on Vintage Valley Dr. was targeted. Jacobsen said that the couple that lived in the home has no association with the suspect.
"I'd like to emphasize that we're still going through this, and I know that there's information that's been released that we would like to make sure that we do our due diligence and make sure these facts are all substantiated," Jacobsen said.
The incident is similar to two other home intruder crimes that have happened in Modesto in just the past week. On June 30, a Modesto woman was killed during a home invasion in Modesto in what investigators called an act of self-defense. A second similar incident happened on July 2, with a Turlock resident shot and killed after trying to break into a home, culminating in an intense shoot-out between homeowner and intruder.
"Fortunately for us, this isn't something that happens commonly," Jacobsen said. "Very rarely actually. And the biggest thing that we're happy about is that the homeowners and the residents are safe, but, definitely...the detectives need to reach out to the other agencies and find out, is there some type of nexus or not? Are they connected, or they just, unfortunately, have to be coincidence?"
The Fairfield Police Department urges anyone that has information or saw something and can help police learn more about what happened, to reach out to the Investigations Bureau at 707-428-7600.
