{"id":79403,"date":"2022-03-31T19:24:49","date_gmt":"2022-04-01T00:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=79403"},"modified":"2022-03-31T19:24:49","modified_gmt":"2022-04-01T00:24:49","slug":"79403","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=79403","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Homeowner who shot intruder: \u2018Had to do it\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

BYRON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) \u2014 A homeowner who shot and killed a man who tried to break into his home south of Grand Rapids early Thursday said he felt he had no other option.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him to go away, \u2018I have a gun on you,\u2019 and he would not go away and kept advancing on us. So\u2026\u201d homeowner Alan Lenhart said later Thursday morning. \u201cWe had to do it. There was no way around it. Absolutely no way around it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Authorities investigating after a homeowner shot and killed an intruder in Byron Township Thursday, March 31, 2022. (Kent County Sheriff\u2019s Office)
\nThe Kent County Sheriff\u2019s Office said that shortly after midnight, the intruder tried to break into a house on 108th Street SW near Wilson Avenue in Byron Township. Sgt. Eric Brunner told News 8 that the suspect was armed with a handgun.<\/p>\n

Lenhart told reporters that he and his wife saw the man knocking the windows out of his pickup truck.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe yelled at him to go away. He proceeded to advance on us. We shut the door, locked him out, called 911,\u201d he said. \u201cI loaded my deer hunting gun.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he had to get the gun out of his safe.<\/p>\n

The stranger then went around to the back of the home, Lenhart said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he was in the backyard, he was going, \u2018Give me the keys, give me the keys,\u2019 and kept approaching,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The intruder then went up the back steps. Lenhart said the door at the top of those steps is barricaded but the man was pushing on it, trying to get in. He said he managed to get the door partially open.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him, \u2018Go away, I\u2019ve got a shotgun on you,\u2019 and he kept coming,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen he started shooting a me. Bullets going past your head, like that,\u201d he continued, pointing with his finger. \u201cTook cover. And he was going back down, run away.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear exactly how many shots in total were fired.<\/p>\n

In all, Lenhart said, it was probably five minutes between when he first saw the man and when he shot him.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe a little bit longer, but not much,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When deputies arrived, they found the intruder, 39-year-old Christopher Worth of Middleville, near the home. He died at the scene, the sheriff\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

Records show Worth has a criminal history dating back to 2000 with convictions for drug offenses, vandalism and unarmed and armed robbery. The Michigan Department of Corrections listed him as a parole absconder at the time of his death.<\/p>\n

Investigators are looking into the possibility that Worth was involved in similar crime recently.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly something we\u2019re going to vet. This person has a pretty substantial criminal history,\u201d Kent County Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young said.<\/p>\n

Deputies believe Worth may have been involved in a car crash in Allegan County and two vehicle thefts overnight, and that he tried to steal a car along 108th Street.<\/p>\n

The homeowner said it was his understanding Worth\u2019s stolen car had broken down just down the street and he was looking for another one.<\/p>\n

Lenhart said he didn\u2019t understand why Worth tried to knock the windows out of the locked truck and expected the keys to be in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was crazy,\u201d Lenhart said.<\/p>\n

Asked if it was tough to do what he did, Lenhart replied, \u201cOh, yeah. Sure. For sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReligious man, so it\u2019s still tough,\u201d he said, appearing to tear up. \u201cScared to death. Who knows when we\u2019ll be done with that, I guess. Hard to go back in your own home after this happens in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has lived in the home 28 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Homeowner who shot intruder: \u2018Had to do it\u2019 BYRON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) \u2014 A homeowner who shot and killed a man who tried to break into his home south of Grand Rapids early Thursday said he felt he had no other option. \u201cI told him to go away, \u2018I have a gun on you,\u2019 and … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-self-defense","category-slugs-for-thugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79404,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79403\/revisions\/79404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}