A 13-year-old boy in Phoenix saw his mother freeze as a meth-addled attacker invaded their home. Fearing for the safety of his mother and his four siblings, he took a gun from mom’s hands and shot the intruder, Juan Saavedra, multiple times.
The rounds caused the intruder to reconsider his attack and flee to the front yard where police found him shortly thereafter, leaking all over the lawn.
It happened in a quiet neighborhood in Phoenix, Arizona. Drugs must have addled Mr. Saavedra’s mind as it seems like common knowledge that almost everyone and their dog in the Grand Canyon State owns guns.
It also alarmed neighbors that an ethically-challenged individual would try something so stupid in their neighborhood.
When officers arrived at around 10:13 p.m., they contacted a man in front of a home, later identified as Saavedra.
“As officers approached this male, they observed him to be suffering from apparent gun shot wounds to his abdomen and right arm,” read a portion of the court documents.
Eventually, officers made contact with an alleged victim, who told officers she had received a motion notification on her security system, and then saw Saavedra on her security camera walking around the front of her home.
“The victim stated she exited her residence and gave the defendant several commands to leave the area or he was at risk of being shot, in an attempt to scare him away from the residences front yard area,” read a portion of the court documents. “The victim stated she then ran back inside of her residence, instructing one of her children to close and lock the door behind her. The victim stated as she entered her residence, she began calling police and went to retrieve a firearm in order to protect herself, her husband and five children located inside.”
The alleged victim, according to police, later heard Saavedra bang on a carport door. After she told her children to move away from the area and hide as far away as possible, she heard the glass windowpane of the carport door shatter, and Saavedra’s hand reaching inside.
“The victim stated as she stood with the firearm, she observed the defendants hand came through the now open and broken window, and reached for the doors doorknob in an attempt to open the door,’ read a portion of the statement. “The victim stated at this point her 13-year-old son, seeing that the defendant was attempting to make entry and his mother was not firing the firearm, in fear for the safety of himself and family, took the firearm from his mother and fired the firearm towards the defendant, striking him.”
It’s common for people to “freeze up” when faced with a criminal attack. While they may or may not resemble an elderly Mitch McConnell when it happens, breaking that freeze as quickly as possible allows victims to resist the attack and minimize injuries.
Given what happened, the 13-year-old deserves huge props for seizing the initiative and defending his family from a violent criminal. Hopefully he’ll recover fully from the incident. And let’s hope mom has a backup gun or two as the police no doubt took hers as evidence.
As for Mr. Saavedra, the homeless meth addict, he’ll be facing plenty of criminal charges once he gets out of the hospital.