Good Guy with a Gun #251: Los Angeles, CA
Pepper spray is a deterrent. A bullet is a crime-stopper. | Original incident: July 8, 2024
These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. Today’s post is significantly updated from the calendar version.
Criminals can strike anywhere at any time.
Anywhere in this case is the Valley Village section of Los Angeles. It’s a quiet, suburban residential pocket in the San Fernando Valley.
Any time is midafternoon, around 3 PM.
A 56-year-old man was at his home there; his wife had left a little while before. Two men entered his house through a sliding glass door. The homeowner got a gun.
Somehow one of the invaders encountered the homeowner — who approached whom is unclear — and hit him with pepper spray. Some sources mention a “scuffle,” but the police report only mentions the spray.
Then the homeowner opened fire. One invader was hit twice in the neck; the other fled.
The homeowner wasn’t critically injured, but he went to the hospital to get treated for the effects of the pepper spray.
The wounded invader was Chucks Chukwudi, a 35-year-old with a lengthy rap sheet that included burglary, robbery, and firearm possession. He went to the hospital in critical-but-stable condition; he lived to be arrested and charged.
(Incidentally, no, you’re not the only person suddenly trying to prevent “How much wood would Chucks Chukwudi chuck...” from running through your brain.)
His partner in crime was Marquinn Peterson, who escaped in a waiting car. It didn’t help him — he was also identified and arrested later. This wasn’t his first brush with the law, either: You can see a two 2017 Facebook posts from the Huntington Beach PD (1, 2) where he was wanted for a residential robbery in Huntington Beach in 2016.
It turns out that Chukwudi and Peterson picked the house because they thought nobody was home. That mistake earned them a trip to the Big House: On January 12, 2026, Chukwudi got twelve years in state prison after pleading no contest to one count of first-degree residential burglary with person present. Peterson got fourteen years and eight months for two counts of first-degree residential burglary.
Finally, here’s a comment from a neighbor, captured by Fox 11: “I hope it all goes as it should for him. Somebody protecting their property doesn’t always go that way, you know, especially more so here, I think, than other places.” I think he’s talking about California, and the way that homeowners are afraid to defend themselves in their own homes because the state is soft on crime but hard on defenders.
Sources
Several sources say the incident involved Chukwudi, another burglar, and an accomplice who drove the car away. This was all early reporting, before they were naming Peterson, and there’s no indication in the later reporting that there was a third criminal involved. It’s certainly possible, though, that there was a getaway driver whose legal process wasn’t covered in the news.
The police report gives Chukwudi’s first name as “Chucks,” but other sources say “Chuks,” which is at least as likely: It’s a given name used by Igbo speakers in Nigeria.
Primary
The LAPD posted their report to their website.
News
Fox 11 LA has the best coverage here, getting community reaction, connecting the dots with other crimes, getting the facts about Chukwudi’s rap sheet, and adding detail that isn’t in the police report. Here’s the early report, and here’s the follow-up. The videos on their pages are worth watching.
News 4 LA gives the details on sentencing.
Patch and American Military News (?) also covered the incident. The latter is an archive link; the report was apparently taken down.
Here’s some of Fox 11’s coverage.
2A / specialist media
Sean Holt at USACarry, Grits and Gear, and Blaze (paywalled) all covered the incident.
And then there’s Smoketales.