Good Guy with a Gun #291: Van Wert, OH
At four feet, there’s no time to call anyone. | Original incident: August 19, 2024
These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. Today’s post is essentially the same as the calendar version.
The storage garage in the 1000 block of Pratt Street had already been broken into once that weekend. Sometime before one it the morning on Monday, somebody broke into it again.
This time the owner was inside.
He told police the man got within four feet of him before he fired in self-defense, hitting him twice — once in the arm, once somewhere in the body. The intruder fled, probably on foot.
Twenty minutes later, a resident over on South Cherry Street — about a mile away — called to say that a visitor had turned up at the house, shot. Said visitor was flown to a hospital with injuries believed not to be life-threatening.
Sources
There’s just not a lot to see here. GGWAG, not myth, just underdocumented — you know the drill by now.
News
The VW independent covered it twice, and its blotter caught both break-ins.
Van Wert Police blotter 8/11-8/18/24 (The first break-in at the same block, the day before)
Van Wert Police blotter 8/18-8/25/24 (The department’s own log entry for the shooting)
Shooting under investigation by VWPD (The morning of, off the department’s release)
Few new details in Monday shooting (The next day. And I have to say that the headline is quite the understatement.)
Additional coverage:
Owner fires shots at storage garage intruder in Van Wert, police say (WANE 15)
Shots fired in Van Wert (Times Bulletin via archive.org)
Man shot after breaking into a storage facility in Van Wert (WLIO)
Man Shot Twice…In Van Wert Attempted Burglary (Mercer County Outlook)