http://www.idahostatejournal.com/members/resident-shoots-man-who-broke-into-home-renter-says-suspect/article_50e543ac-9be0-11e3-8b97-001a4bcf887a.html Resident shoots man who broke into home: Renter says suspect threatened him with machete
Previous Next Scott Kraus/Idaho State JournalShot suspect(Scott Kraus/Idaho State Journal) Emergency personnel transport a suspect who was shot by a resident of the Stanford Apartments at 229 S. Garfield Ave. in Pocatello. The suspect broke into the apartment wielding a machete Saturday morning.
Posted: Monday, February 24, 2014 7:47 am |
Updated: 9:11 am, Mon Feb 24, 2014. Resident shoots man who broke into home: Renter says suspect threatened him with machete By Debbie Bryce For the Journal Idaho State Journal |
POCATELLO — James Cvengaros breathed a deep sigh of relief after learning that the man he shot early Saturday morning was still alive. Cvengaros shot the man after he kicked down the door of his west-side apartment and entered wielding a large machete at about 7:15 a.m.
“I was defending my home and my family,” Cvengaros said. “He left me no choice, but I sure didn’t want to kill anybody.” Cvengaros, 28, said he woke early Saturday morning to the sound of breaking glass. The suspect, who lives upstairs in the two-floor Stanford Apartments at 229 S. Garfield Ave., was breaking out the windows in his own apartment. Cvengaros woke his girlfriend, and she started recording the commotion upstairs and called the police.
The couple then heard the man break into another upstairs apartment, a second call was placed to police at that time. “I heard them upstairs. And I was scared, and I got my weapon. Then I heard him coming down to my door,” Cvengaros said. “He kicked open the door and came inside with this big machete. A machete like you buy at an Army surplus store.” Cvengaros declined to identify the neighbor out of respect for the intruder’s family, but said that the man was the reason he originally bought the 9 mm handgun. “It was the second time that he kicked my door in,” Cvengaros said. “He did it once before because he said my music was too loud.” Once the man entered the small apartment, Cvengaros said he warned him several times to stop and told him that he was armed.
“I told him to stop. I told him, ‘I’ve got a gun, don’t make me use it,’ but he just kept coming at me. He had this crazy, glazed look,” Cvengaros said. “I thought a gun would deter him. It did not.” Cvengaros said he fired the handgun twice, and the intruder kept coming. When he fired a third shot, the man went down. “He said, ‘You killed me.’ I told him, ‘You were going to kill me.’ And he said, ‘Yeah,’” Cvengaros said. “I asked why he would kick down the door and enter somebody’s house, and he told me that the military had abandoned him.”
Pocatello Police Lt. Paul Manning said the man was transported to Portneuf Medical Center, where he underwent surgery for wounds to his upper torso. Manning said, when the man forced his way into the upstairs apartment, the residents, who were familiar with the intruder, yelled at him and forced him to leave. That’s when he went to the Cvengaros’s apartment. Cvengaros and his girlfriend spent the morning at her parent’s home while investigators worked inside the residence. “If you would have told me a year ago that I was going to have to do this, I would have never have believed it,” Cvengaros said.
Police were also not releasing the suspect’s name Saturday and said more information, including the charges filed against the man, would be available Monday. Lt. Cliff Kelley said Saturday afternoon that the man was in the intensive care unit at PMC after surgery. Kelley said the investigation is ongoing. No one else was injured in the incident. Bannock County Prosecutor Steve Herzog was en route back to Bannock County from Salmon on Saturday, when he learned of the shooting. He plans to review the reports Monday. Herzog said he had been told that the man’s prognosis was good.
