Douglas Downs, 48, was at home with a friend, 36-year-old Andrew Boyd, shortly after midnight when several armed men broke into his home and tried to rob him. Boyd was forced into the basement before Downs managed to retrieve a handgun from a chair in the living room. Downs fired numerous rounds until the first man dropped his weapon. He then exchanged gunfire with a second intruder. A third intruder appeared and helped his accomplices out of the home to a vehicle where a fourth man waited. Police were later notified that a man with multiple gunshot wounds had been taken to a nearby hospital. All four men were later found, arrested and charged for their involvement in the home invasion. Downs and Boyd were uninjured. (York Daily Record, York, PA, 10/24/12)
The Armed Citizen Extra
A masked gunman was killed and the two young men he was trying to rob were wounded in a shootout during a home invasion. The shooting occurred "inside and outside" the home where two males were playing video games when they were confronted by a man who came to the door, a Pittsburgh police officer said. "There was a knock on the door, and one of the kids opened it to see a man wearing a mask and holding a gun," an officer said. "He tried to shut the door, and the gunman fired, hitting the kid in the side of the face." Both parties fired several shots at each other. The masked man died at a nearby hospital from a shot to the head, and the condition of the other two men was not known. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Pittsburgh, PA, 1/24/13)
From The Armed Citizen Archives
November 1970: Opening his front door at 11:00 p.m., Robert Epstein of Brattleboro, Vt., discovered two men with stockings drawn over their faces, one of them carrying a knife. Epstein quickly slammed the door and yelled out that he had a gun, whereupon the strangers fled. (Daily Reformer, Brattleboro, VT)
