A Reading man has been charged in the shooting of two men suspected of breaking into his car.
Police said the man, Hector Rodriguez Jr., admitted to shooting both men early Monday morning from the second floor window of his home in the 1200 block of North 11th Street.
Both men fled the scene and turned up at the hospital about a half-hour later. One man had been shot in the chest, the other in the ankle, police said.
District Attorney John Adams said he and his team spent several days examining whether Rodriguez had the legal authority to use deadly force in the defense of his property. Because the car was unoccupied, Adams said Rodriguez did not have legal justification to shoot.
“While I sympathize with Mr. Rodriguez’s plight, in so far that none of us want to see our property stolen, his use of force was not justified,” Adams said.
Many neighbors said they also sympathize with the shooter.
“I do not think it is fair that he is getting charged if he was protecting his property. There have been several times that we have had incidents on this block where people had their personal items damaged and no one faced repercussions,” said Bethany Baez.
“He saw that the two guys were in his car, breaking his window. So, what else can you do? If you have a firearm, and I believe he has a license to carry a gun, so he has to protect his property,” said Leo Acuna.
Rodriguez, 28, was charged Thursday with two felony counts of aggravated assault, as well as two misdemeanor counts each of simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.
Rodriguez did fully cooperate with police and was licensed to carry a gun, so the district attorney recommended he be released on $10,000 unsecured bail.
The car break-in suspects, Miguel Otero-Maldonado and Ricardo Rodriguez-Luna, were each charged with criminal mischief, theft from motor vehicle and criminal conspiracy to commit theft from motor vehicle. Those are misdemeanor and summary offenses.