Texas man tracks down his stolen car to supermarket car park and shoots thief dead in gunfight
28 July 2023, 15:26 | Updated: 28 July 2023, 15:36
A man whose car was stolen in Texas tracked down his property to a shopping centre, killing the alleged thief in a gunfight.
The car thief pulled out a gun and opened fire on the attacker, wounding him - but the owner pulled out his own gun and shot back, killing the thief.
The car’s owner left South Park Mall in San Antonio, Texas at around 1pm local time to find his Ford truck was missing.
They tracked it down to a different car park nearby, when the shooting started.
Police said: “The owners of the stolen vehicle tracked the vehicle to the parking lot back here behind me. They showed up, they find the vehicle, there were two individuals, a male and a female in the vehicle.”
The car’s rightful owner told the thief to sit down next to the car while they waited for police to arrive, but he pulled out a gun, shooting the owner - who returned fire, hitting both of them.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene. The car’s owner and the other woman who was shot were taken to hospital. The owner of the car is in stable condition and the woman is reported to be critically injured.
Police said the shooting was self defence.
“The owner of the stolen vehicle certainly has the right to track down his stolen vehicle. Now we would prefer that they call the police before taking that into your own hands, but he did what he felt he needed to do,” a police spokesman said.
The victim’s brother told local news station KENS 5: ““The guy who shot him is a vigilante, not a hero. A vehicle is not worth taking someone’s life, I don’t care what kind of car it is. You don’t take the law into your own hands,” Garcia added.
“Now my mom, my family, we all have to suffer and just deal with it.”
