RIO LINDA, Calif. — A Rio Linda / Elverta Community Water District employee was hospitalized after he was shot in the torso by an intruder at his home Monday.
According to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, it happened around 10:30 a.m. on the 7500 block of Bergen Way in Rio Linda. He's expected to survive the injury.
The sheriff’s office said the man was at work when he received an alert through his security camera system someone was in his backyard.
“He rushed home from work, came out there and confronted the guy who was walking toward the front of his residence. From there, that suspect shot our victim once in the torso,” said Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Amar Gandhi.
Neighbor Candace Grigsby heard the gunshots and the sirens.
“My heart skipped a beat for a moment because it sounded like it was really close,” she said.
The victim’s neighbors and colleagues call the victim a family man and a well-respected member of the community.
“This is a regular working Joe who was able to protect his home but at his own peril,” Gandhi said, adding that the sheriff’s office encourages people to report a crime like this rather than confronting an intruder.
“We’d much rather avoid this situation — call us, let us respond,” Gandhi said.
