JACKSONVILLE, FLa – A man was shot Saturday night while on the porch of a Westside home, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said.
A homeowner on Moses Street, in the Sweet Water neighborhood near the intersection of Wilson Street and Interstate 295, called police around 11:30 p.m. reporting that he shot at an intruder.
Officers found the injured man several blocks away with a gunshot wound to the stomach. He was taken to a hospital, where he was reported in stable condition.
The names of the injured man and the homeowner were not released.
According to the incident report, the homeowner told police his burglary alarm went off about 11:15 p.m., and he grabbed his gun and went to the front door. He said the porch light was off, and when he opened the door he was startled by a man standing on the porch with soda cans in his arms.
The homeowner said he fired several shots before he realized he recognized the man, who ran off and was found by rescue personnel.
News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith said police will interview the injured man to get his side of the story and determine if the shooting was justified.
“Usually someone who is intending to do harm or commit a crime is not going to walk around committing a burglary or home invasion with sodas in their hand,” Smith said. “They’re going to have a weapon or burglary tools or something that’s going to cause some type of fight or something.”
But Smith said it's possible the homeowner didn’t know at first what the man was holding.
“It’s hard to tell how much lighting was there. He did recognize sodas. He didn’t say beer or anything,” Smith said. “It seemed like he was able to recognize what the cans were. It seems to me maybe he could recognize who the person was at the door, but it’s hard to tell with it being dark.”
Smith said officers will do a thorough investigation to see if the shooting was justified and whether the State Attorney’s Office wants to follow through with a possible aggravated battery charge.