A home invasion on the Northeast Side ended in a gunfight in which one suspect was killed and another was critically injured early Wednesday, police said. The homeowner also was wounded.
Andrew W. Wharmby, 27, told officers he heard banging on his front door about 4:40 a.m., according to a police report. He told officers he became suspicious and grabbed his shotgun as he walked to the door.
He then heard noise in his garage, and when he saw the two men walk into his house, he shot at both. At least one of them returned fire and shot him in the face.
Police found one of the suspects — believed to be in his late teens or 20s — dead in the garage. The other was flown to San Antonio Military Medical Center in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the chest, police Sgt. J.R. Fiste said at the scene.
That suspect, 24, was arrested at the hospital and charged with aggravated robbery, the report states.
Police detained a third suspect, a 20-year-old woman, but released her after questioning, San Antonio police spokesman Matt Porter said.
Wharmby, the homeowner, was shot in the chin, Fiste said. He also was taken to SAMMC, and was listed in stable condition. One of the suspects had been armed with an assault rifle, which police retrieved at the scene, the report states.
Officials at Fort Sam Houston said Wharmby's name matches that of a civilian employed at the Army post, and neighbors said the young man works at a laboratory there. He is pursuing a doctoral degree in biomedical engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio, a UTSA spokesman said.
“I didn't even know he had a gun. I didn't even think he was capable of shooting a gun,” said one neighbor, Rosalba Fletcher. “Good for him. He could have been dead.”
She and her husband, Billy Fletcher, described Wharmby as studious and accomplished. The couple said they talked to Wharmby's father and were told their neighbor was up and talking in his hospital room Wednesday afternoon.
The couple said violent crime is rare in the residential neighborhood, which they called safe and quiet.
“Police check on us, but they're not visitors,” Rosalba Fletcher said. “This is not common for us.”
Despite that, Billy Fletcher said he keeps a gun in their home, as well.
“I've got one, too, but I can't find it,” he said with a chuckle.
Rosalba Fletcher said Wharmby is “not one to spend on a lot of luxuries,” though they and other neighbors said they surmised the intruders might have been interested in taking a classic car parked in the garage.
Rex Hill, 77, a next-door neighbor, said Wharmby is shy and “very quiet.”
“I just can't understand what happened,” Hill said. “Why would somebody come in and rob the place with a rifle?”
Investigators remained at the home examining evidence through much of Wednesday. Blood droplets stained a concrete curb outside the home.
Source:
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