PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — A homeowner in the West Oak Lake section of Philadelphia is recovering after being shot on his own property.

He says he was going about his early morning routine when he heard a commotion in his yard.

Moments later, he was shot in the leg.

“I can’t understand why people doing this?” said Morgan Carroll, who lives nearby. “How are you going to take someone else’s stuff that they earned? And you wanna shoot them because you can’t have it? I don’t understand.”

Action News met Carroll as he came to check on his neighbor’s home, where the back glass door is now shattered and blood is splattered on the pavement.

Morgan says he’s lived in the neighborhood 42 years and he’s seen it all, but never this.

Police say it all began Thursday morning around 4:30 in the 1600 block of East Mayland Street.

“14th district police responded to a 911 call of a person screaming,” said Chief Police Inspector Scott Small.

They found a 56-year-old man in the basement of his home with a gunshot wound to his right lower leg.

The victim was able to tell police he woke up to go to work and heard voices in the back of his home.

He saw suspects sitting in a car and, just that fast, he was shot.

“That male fired a shot from the vehicle that went through the rear door of his property, striking the victim in the leg,” said Small.

The victim told police he believes that his black Acura SUV is being targeted.

He said it was damaged in another potential break-in just four days ago.

Police verified that he reported that incident.

“Suppose he was shot up top in the chest area or the head, he might be gone. Just a sad situation, that’s all,” said Carroll.

The only description police have of the suspect is that it’s a thin man who was last seen wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt in a gold sedan.

The suspects sped off after the shooting.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 215-686-TIPS.

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