Residents to Home Invaders: Be Prepared for Gunshots

Dallas residents say burglars should be prepared for gunfire after the second home invasion in Pleasant Grove in two days.

The two cases happened in broad daylight within blocks of each other.

But residents said criminals should worry about their own safety.

"Anyone who comes in without your acceptance and offering, then they need to be shot," said Mitchell McKeller. "You take matters into your own hands, because if they get the upper hand on you, there's no telling what might happen."

The victim of the first robbery shot and wounded Joshua Richmond, 19, of Balch Springs.

Two men broke through the front door of the home in the 2500 block of Eastern Oaks Drive on Sunday.

Richmond was arrested, but a second man escaped. Neighbors said they wondered if he might be responsible for another home break-in Monday.

That one happened at about 10:40 a.m. at a home in the 9900 block of Bluff Creek Drive.

Janette Rodriguez said she was home alone in her bedroom when she heard a crash at the back door. When she went to see what had happened, she saw a burglar in her house.

"I got up. I was sitting on my bed. He saw me. He was like, 'Stay in there.' I got up. I walked back down the hallway," Rodriguez said.

She said she did what she was told, and the man left quickly with a flat-screen TV from her home.

The burglars in both home invasions were not armed, according to witnesses and police reports.

Rodriguez called relatives and police, and news of the break-in quickly spread among neighbors, who say residents try to look out for each other.

"It could have been related, you never know," Lakeisha VanZandt said. "It's the holiday season, people [are] doing bad [and] need money and, you know, this time of the year, things like that happen."

Stanley Dunbar said another home on Bluff Creek Drive had recently been burglarized.

"And right now, it's getting bad over here," he said. "People just going through here, just knocking on doors, nobody comes to the door. Someday, they come back and just kick the door in."

Residents said Monday they were pleased to see police stop and question a man driving a car matching a vehicle description of the burglars.

But Rodriguez said police officers investigating her case told her that the man was allowed to leave and no charges were filed.

"They say it wasn't him," she said. "But they're already getting the fingerprints and stuff, so hopefully they find something."

A Dallas police spokeswoman declined to comment on any possible connection between the two cases except to say that burglars are still wanted in both of them.