Indians For Guns

SHAWNEE, Okla. – A Shawnee homeowner says he was the victim of a break-in, but the intruder picked the wrong house.

Shawnee police were called to a home early Wednesday morning after receiving a report of a homeowner shooting an intruder.

Cardell and his wife, Frances, were asleep when they heard a banging on their back door.

“I grabbed my gun and loaded it,” Cardell said.

Cardell, who is in his 70s, made his way into the living room and came face-to-face with a man armed with a shotgun.

“He kept hollering, ‘Get on the ground! Get on the ground,” Cardell said. “I told him, I said, ‘You better get out of here. And he kept a coming, so I fired.”

“I heard the shots and I didn’t know if the guy had shot my husband,” said Frances.

Fortunately, Cardell was not hurt.

However, police say his one round hit the alleged suspect in the chest.

“He had the right to do what he did,” said Jason Crouch, with the Shawnee Police Department. “You’re entitled to protect yourself and your family and your house.”

Cardell says he did not have any experience using a firearm.

“No! That’s my first time shooting a gun,” he said.

Frances said they bought the gun hoping to never need it, but now she’s glad it was there.

“This is something we never dreamed would have happened in our lifetime,” Frances said.

The alleged suspect ran off but police found him hiding under a neighbor’s truck.

Officers have identified the alleged suspect as 26-year-old Justin Ray Harjo, who lives in the Shawnee area.

He is now in the hospital in critical condition.

“I think they thought we were easy prey,” Frances said.

Cardell says his gun jammed after he fired that first shot.

He says he doesn’t want to think about what would’ve happened had he not hit Harjo on the first try.