A military veteran in Oregon had his rifle confiscated after police decided he had no good reason to fire a warning shot at a burglar who was breaking into his home.
The burglar turned out to be 40-year-old wanted felon Jonathon Kinsella, The Blaze reported. Police caught him fleeing the scene of a home he was trying to burglarize — after the homeowner gave a verbal warning and fired a single gun shot to scare him away.
Nobody was injured or killed. But police responding to the burglary call said Corey Thompson, 36, should not have fired to scare off the felon, who was breaking into his home through the back door, The Blaze said.
Mr. Thompson, who’s a military veteran, said he warned the intruder: “This is the end result. You break into someone’s house, there’s consequences,” The Blaze reported. He then fired a shot from his AR-15, which did not hit anybody.
But police took his weapon, anyway. They charged Mr. Thompson with unlawful use of a weapon, and menacing and reckless endangering, and seized the weapon on the basis that it was used in the commission of a crime, The Blaze said.
“There was nothing that the suspect was doing that was aggressive enough to justify the shooting,” Medford Police Lt. Mike Budreau said, in The Blaze report.
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Mr. Kinsella’s outstanding warrants were for burglary and assault, The Blaze said.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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