The house on Aldershot Road in Catonsville may not have been the first one the burglar hit on Wednesday night.
"There was a neighbor that told me their house got broken into and somebody else, twice," said Jordan Nelson.
But it may have been his last.
Police say a 44-year old woman entered her home, immediately suspected something was wrong and dialed 911.
"She noticed there were some things amiss in her house that didn't look right so she called police initially saying she thought someone had broken into the house,” said Ofc. Jennifer Peach of the Baltimore County Police Department, “She began to look around herself and she found him in the attic of her home."
The victim didn't know if the burglar was armed, but in a matter of seconds, she made sure she was.
"She actually pulled a gun on him and they began to struggle for that gun,” said Peach, “The gun went off multiple times and she was struck in an extremity during this altercation with him. He ran out of the house."
The woman suffered a gunshot wound to the hand, and police arriving on the scene spotted the shooter, 55-year-old Everett William Johnson, and gave chase, watching him toss the gun into a nearby yard before finally arresting him without incident.
It's now suspected Johnson was behind a one-man crime spree in the area.
"This suspect had committed at least three other burglaries on that street before he got to this woman's house," said Peach.
Not to mention other burglaries in recent weeks in the same neighborhood just off of Edmondson Avenue.
"He should know better,” said Frederick McKinney, one of the victim’s neighbors, “People out here own guns."
And while the 55-year-old career criminal may have learned that the hard way, police offer up some common-sense advice for people armed to protect themselves inside their own home.
"If you're a homeowner and you're a gun owner then you need to be ready to use that weapon for your own safety, if you're going to present it,” said Peach, “Otherwise, you should not be bringing it into that situation, because in this case it was used against her."
