Disabled Vietnam veteran shoots, kills home intruder
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – It’s the makings of a nightmare, but when a local veteran woke up recently, it was his terrifying reality.
Danny Ricketts says a person with a knife tried to get into his window, but he was also armed. Ricketts says he grabbed the gun from his nightstand, shot the intruder, and then called police.
When police got to his apartment near San Mateo and Zuni early Monday morning, they found the intruder down the street.
Ricketts wishes it was all a bad dream.
“I looked at the window and I didn’t see any blood and I didn’t see any bodies. So I thought I missed initially and I was kind of grateful at that,” said Ricketts.
He woke up early in the morning to his bedroom window slamming.
“I could see it was a knife sticking under the window, sort of wiggling back and forth, and the window was coming up,” Ricketts said.
With his PTSD, the Vietnam War veteran keeps a weapon close by.
“I keep a pistol on my nightstand under a hat. I reached and got it and I said, I still don’t know quite what I said, ‘What the f**k you doing, get the h*ll away from here’ something like that,” said Ricketts.
Then, he fired one round and the person took off.
“This was folded in such a way the bullet went through three layers at first,” said Ricketts.
Police haven’t released the suspect’s name, but surveillance video from a neighbor shows him running by after the shooting.
Ricketts called 911, but the intruder later died in the street.
“When I was in the police car I could see in the distance the body, and I asked the detective if it was the body of the person I shot, and they said ‘Yeah’ and I felt kind of bad,” Ricketts said.
Police say, as of now, Ricketts is justified in the shooting.
“Sounds like this gentleman the other day he called police, he secured his firearm I believe, he told them exactly what happened,” APD Spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos.
KOB 4 saw another example of this in late March when police say Joseph Rivera broke into Anissa Tinnin’s Albuquerque home. She was there with her 4-year-old granddaughter. She called the police but took matters into her own hands.
Gallegos says while they can’t tell you what to do if you’re in a similar situation, they can tell you what not to do.
“We’ve seen instances too where people may have felt a fear but, and then they go chasing the individual, and continue to shoot at them. That’s where it really gets pretty questionable as to whether you’re defending your life at that point,” said Gallegos. “You can protect yourself if there’s a fear of harm or protect somebody else. You can’t protect your property by using deadly force.”
Gallegos says APD is currently investigating five other homicides in the city that are looking justified as well.
The district attorney’s office always has the final say though if charges will be filed.
