Off-Duty Cop Shoots Intruder In Her Home
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A 17-year-old burglar picked the wrong house to break into.
The hospitalized suspect was in serious condition after being shot by an off-duty Chicago police officer Friday morning.
Dorothy Campbell says she and her husband heard the commotion.
"My husband came out and looked out and she was calling us to help her," she says.
The Campbells' neighbor is a 24-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, who works the evening CTA detail.
The officer woke up this morning to a door bell, says Pat Camden, spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police.
"She figures it's the neighbors or somebody else. She doesn't pay attention to it," he says.
The officer then heard noises coming from a downstairs bedroom. Police say the officer grabbed her gun and headed downstairs to find a teen rifling through her stuff.
"He turns around, lunges at her. At that point, she fires her weapon, fearing for her life," Camden says.
Dorothy Campbell says the officer asked the intruder what he was doing in her home.
"She was telling him to 'stay down, stay down, stay down," says Campbell, who with her husband called 9-1-1.
She hopes the incident will discourage the burglars targeting their Ashburn neighborhood.
"Maybe he'll tell his buddies. Maybe they'll stay out of the neighborhood," Campbell says.
Neighbors say this is not the first time the officer's home was broken into. Police say they believe the intruder made his way inside, through an open window.
No charges have been filed against the teen, so far.
