{"id":99063,"date":"2024-01-04T15:18:07","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T21:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=99063"},"modified":"2024-01-04T15:19:32","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T21:19:32","slug":"99063","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=99063","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fox59.com\/news\/indycrime\/indy-homeowner-says-he-fought-off-intruder-killed-him-with-his-own-gun\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Indy homeowner says he fought off intruder, killed him with his own gun<\/a><\/p>\n<p>INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 One man is dead following an\u00a0attempted home invasion\u00a0on Indy\u2019s east side.<\/p>\n<p>Today the homeowner who killed the suspect spoke out about the shooting a short time after he was released without charges.<\/p>\n<p>The front of his home and car were riddled with bullets after the homeowner said he killed an intruder and then exchanged gunfire with additional suspects outside.\u00a0That homeowner insists he had no choice but to defend his life.<\/p>\n<p>Just before 7 p.m.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/fox59.com\/news\/indycrime\/person-critically-injured-in-shooting-on-indys-east-side-3\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/fox59.com\/news\/indycrime\/person-critically-injured-in-shooting-on-indys-east-side-3\/\">Tuesday night<\/a>, police were called to a neighborhood near 38th and Post after a homeowner reported a masked man forced his way into the home during an attempted robbery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe smacked me in the head with a gun and told me I knew what it was and then I yelled out he\u2019s trying to rob me,\u201d said Brent Smith.<\/p>\n<div class=\"nlp-ignore-block article-content rich-text\">\n<aside class=\"promo-link\">Brent Smith claims he then quickly began to fight with the would-be thief and the pair crashed through a glass table inside his home.<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"promo-link\">\u201cIt was like a movie, me and him wrestling over the gun,\u201d said Smith.<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p>During that struggle, Smith admits he shot the intruder with the suspect\u2019s own gun.<\/p>\n<p>Damon Swanigan Junior, 22, died on the front step of the home, which was then hit by a barrage of bullets from outside.\u00a0That gunfire damaged the siding, the front door and shattered the windows of a car parked in the street.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the gun went off I heard thousands of gunshots,\u201d said Smith. \u201cIt was a lot of gunfire man, a lot of gunfire.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smith said during that shootout, he grabbed his own gun and returned fire before the suspects in the street drove away leaving behind a pile of broken car glass.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t even think them or me.\u00a0I was just basically trying to survive myself man,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n<p>Police questioned Smith overnight, but because the law allows people to defend themselves and their home with deadly force, he was released pending further investigation.<\/p>\n<p>The next morning Smith remained emotional thinking about the life he had taken.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat doesn\u2019t make no sense man. I didn\u2019t want to do that,\u201d said Smith. \u201cI don\u2019t know his intention, but I didn\u2019t want to be shot. That\u2019s just all there is to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Police did not have any information on the suspects who may have fled the scene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Indy homeowner says he fought off intruder, killed him with his own gun INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 One man is dead following an\u00a0attempted home invasion\u00a0on Indy\u2019s east side. Today the homeowner who killed the suspect spoke out about the shooting a short time after he was released without charges. The front of his home and car were &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=99063\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/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-99063","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\/99063","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=99063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99064,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99063\/revisions\/99064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}