BALTIMORE — Some wisps of crime scene tape, a boarded-up, front door and bullet holes in the windows above.
By daybreak, there was little evidence of the deadly confrontation at a jewelry store called Stephen Page of Baltimore, but a woman who lives nearby heard it unfold.
“My dog had roused,” she told us, “I stood up and all of a sudden I heard ‘Bang! Bang! Bang!’ but the third time that the shot went off, there was an excruciating sound out of a man who fell to the ground.”
Watch as residents react to storefront owner shooting burglar in Canton
As other neighbors and onlookers heard of the fatal shooting, they tried to piece together what had happened.
“Somebody broke in there this morning,” said Wayne Chapple, “He was trying to rob him and it went bad I guess.”
“I was really surprised that there’s not really a crime scene or police presence here,” added Teddy Linde.
Some eight hours after the incident played out here, police told us that it was actually the property owner who confronted the burglar and opened fire on him.
Police say the alleged would-be intruder was 39-years-old in possession of burglary tools.
The property owner has not been charged in what appears to be a justified shooting, which will be left for the State’s Attorney’s Office to decide.
Where the shooting unfolded may play a role in that decision.
“I could see the man was laying on top of those stairs,” the witness told us, “His head was on the street and his body was up on the steps of the jewelry store, and then all the police came.”
In the court of public opinion, many have already decided the owner had little choice but to act.
"When he broke in the door, he heard a big bang like someone was blowing his door off," said Chapple, "So that would make me just get the gun out and anything else to try to protect my store and myself, so you can't blame him for that."
