Our last blog post gave you tips on how to avoid becoming a victim of a burglary during the holiday season. The article's tips included ways to secure your home and to hide the visibility of your belongings. The article did not, however, discuss ways to protect the safety of the home's occupants during a first degree burglary or home invasion. For many Oklahomans, the preferred way to protect oneself and one's family is gun ownership.
The day after our "Prevent Holiday Burglary" article ran, an alleged burglar was shot and killed in northwest Oklahoma City.
Initially, details were scarce. Early reports only stated that police responded Saturday afternoon to reports of a home security alarm going off and a phone call from a young man who said his father had shot an intruder.
Those early reports said that a man's body was found lying outside the home, and that the homeowner said he shot the intruder inside his home, but the man collapsed outside as he attempted to leave.
As details began to emerge, the homeowner was identified as Tom Vineyard, 48, pastor of the Windsor Hills Baptist Church on NW 23rd Street near MacArthur Boulevard. If the pastor's name sounds familiar, you may have heard it when the Southern Poverty Law Center named the church a "hate group" in response to inflammatory statements Vineyard made about homosexuality.
Reports say that Vineyard was away from the home when he received notification from his alarm company that someone had tripped the alarm. Vineyard came home to investigate, and when he did, the intruder sprang from a closet and attacked him. During the physical altercation, the homeowner fatally shot the burglar.
The "man" who broke into Vineyard's home has since been identified as a 14-year-old boy. Keontre Reese had a pending robbery case against him in a separate incident when he died.
Oklahoma supports the "Castle Doctrine," or the right of homeowners to use lethal force against an intruder in order to protect their own safety.
After investigating the case, Oklahoma City police released the following statement:
"The resident, Tom Vineyard, came home and interrupted the burglary while it was still in progress. Mr. Vineyard became involved in a physical altercation with Reese, inside of the residence. While defending himself during the altercation, Mr. Vineyard shot and killed Reese."
According to Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater, Vineyard was justified in the use of lethal force against the intruder in his home. He has been cleared of any wrongdoing and will not face charges in the death of the teen.
