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Homeowner shoots man, stops burglary
By LINDA GIBSON © St. Petersburg Times, published January 7, 2001 TEMPLE TERRACE -- Donald R. Faulk, 54, woke before dawn Saturday because he thought he heard something in the living room. Faulk grabbed a .22-caliber revolver and, while his wife waited, walked down the hall and into the living room of the single-story house. There, police said, he found 22-year-old Brian Anthony Harmon, who lived with his mother only two blocks from Faulk in the Orange River Estates subdivision. Harmon had entered the Faulk house about 5:15 a.m. through a sliding glass door in the back, but he left in an ambulance with a bullet wound in at least one leg. Faulk shot him after Harmon ignored a warning shot into a piece of furniture and continued to walk toward the homeowner, said Temple Terrace police. Harmon was treated at Tampa General Hospital and booked into the Orient Road jail on charges of burglary and possession of marijuana. By 6 p.m., his mother had arrived at the jail with a wheelchair and the money needed to meet the bail of $8,000. This wasn't Harmon's first trip to jail. Hillsborough County records show 10 arrests for him since 1997 on charges including drunken driving, shoplifting and battery on a law enforcement officer. The disposition of those charges wasn't available Saturday night. Faulk declined to talk about the experience. But two streets over, Deborah Harmon, 45, apologized for her son before going to the jail to pick him up. "My heart goes out to those people," she said. "He had just had too much to drink. I know he's not a model child, but he would never hurt anyone." Across the street from the Harmons, another single mother said she worries about the teenagers she sees in the neighborhood who don't seem well-supervised. "I see roving teens that concern me," said Pat Farrell, 43. "That house," she said, pointing to the Harmon house, "concerned me because there were lots of loud kids coming and going." Two doors away from the Faulk house, Foxxe Freeman said the break-in and shooting were the first incidents of that type she's heard about in the neighborhood since moving there in 1996. It's a neighborhood of neat, well-landscaped stucco houses, quiet enough that children play in the street. However, Freeman wasn't surprised that her neighbor had a gun. "I think every home probably has a gun," she said. "You've got to protect yourself." - Linda Gibson can be reached at (813) 226-3382 or at gibson@sptimes.com
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From the Times |
