waukegan home invasion shooting
Courtesy nbcchicago.com

You know that dreaded bump-in-the-night situation that so many gun owners think about, worry about, and prepare for? The fact is, those situations don’t always happen in the middle of the night. Many times they take place in broad daylight. Case in point: an attempted home invasion yesterday — in what a neighbor described as a “pretty calm neighborhood” — in suburban Waukegan, Illinois, just north of Chicago.

The local constabulary received a call about 10:00 a.m. from a home owner reporting that two people, one of them armed, had tried to break into their home. It didn’t go well for the would-be invaders. There was an exchange of gunfire and then . . .

Officers showed up to the home and found the two males dead in the front yard, police said. Their names have not been released by the Lake County coroner’s office.

The good news is, according to the reporter in the video above, the local 5-0 called it an “isolated incident.” But apparently it wasn’t that isolated.

The shooting happened within a block of a Motel 6 that’s been the site of two murders since late August. John Cannon, 24, of Waukegan was shot fatally shot Sept. 8 at the motel, 31 N. Green Bay Rd., authorities said. On Aug. 26, another man was shot to death at the same motel. No arrest has been announced in either shooting.

In short, the home owner was home, ready, and able to defend himself and his family when two doods attempted to a violent dynamic entry. In other words, he was his own first responder. Police can never arrive quickly enough to be of much help when S really hits the F. That’s why you have to be prepared to protect yourself and those you love. And why home carry is such a good idea, too.

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62 COMMENTS

  1. Good for homeowner! Justified or not he’s still got a shit storm ahead of him. Also, that Motel 6 should turn the light off.

    • I’ll bet he used a long gun (AR15 or shotgun). Two home invaders shot, two dead, doesn’t sound like a handgun.

        • Yep,

          With respect to handguns, gunshot wounds are only fatal about 19% of the time.

          Is it possible that the homeowner delivered fatal wounds to two attackers with a handgun? Sure. Is it highly improbable? Also true.

        • The vast majority of people shot with handguns survive. A load of buckshot (or a high velocity rifle round) does vastly more damage than most pistol rounds.

        • Statistically, someone shot once with a handgun is likely to surprise.

          However, that is taking all handgun wounds into consideration. Every drive-by graze, every blindfire hit to the buttocks, etc. Meanwhile, I bet if it were looked at, rifle fire tends to be more likely to be center mass hits. Skews the stats. If you get shot a couple times in the chest with a handgun your chances of survival are not 80%.

          So this result doesn’t surprise me even if it is a handgun.

        • Hannibal brings up a good point. The survival rate of all gunshot wounds is around 80% — and that tends to be a poor way of looking at specific situations for the very reason that Hannibal listed. (All gunshot wounds include all shots — even shots that superficially wounded the wounded person.)

          I imagine that the survival rate of handgun shots to the chest are markedly lower.

          Then again, the homeowner may have been wearing his big-boy pants and blasted the home invaders with a .44 Magnum revolver with hot loads and 180 grain hollowpoints. Your odds of surviving a single shot to the chest from that platform are exceedingly low.

        • Also, I wonder if people typically get more precise hits with a long gun. They are far easier for most people to shoot accurately.

        • Keep in mind that the sole reason that ‘most’ people survive a gunshot wound nowadays is not because they aren’t ‘shot enough’ with a ‘big enough’ gun, or even in just the right place, to do the job; It’s because of the modern innovation of rapid EMS response, the wide availability of trauma centers, and antibiotics, or even simple ‘first aid.’ If one isn’t shot DRT, and manages to survive to get to an ER in a timely manner, chances are good that they’ll live, in some form or another.

          Absent these developments, pretty much any gunshot wound will do the trick; It’s merely a matter of time. Without proper treatment, one runs out of blood in all of the right places, has too much blood in all of the WRONG places, or just dies somewhat later of the virtually inevitable infection and sepsis.

          That’s why our forebears were perfectly happy with .32RF, .38 S&W, .38 Special, and .41 RF Short pocket guns; The people that they intended to shoot were well aware that, if shot, they were very likely to die in a fairly unpleasant manner no matter where they were shot, and modified their behavior appropriately. Such guns still work well today, for the most part, because very few DGUs end in gunfire, and even a LITTLE hole in an important bit gives one pause, most of the time.

        • In a time and country with top tier emergency medical care and well developed transportation and emergency services? Yeah no very often. Handgun GSW will kill if they hit the CNS or major arteries/vessels (aorta, vessel feeding lungs, directly in the heart), but most other stuff and people will last long enough for EMS to stabilize them and get them to a world-class trauma center that exist in most metro areas.

    • More like white supremacist murders two mostly peaceful home inspectors after they accidentally enter the wrong house. Mom says they were angels.

  3. Waukegan was going downhill 33 years ago when we left the Chicago area. Can’t imagine it’s gotten better. I used to inspect houses in that town, it was not safe in the ’80s. I always love the way outsiders/reporters spin things.

    • It’s an absolute shit hole now. a girl we take care of now lived there for a few years. We would go up and check on her often. Wow what a shit hole.

      • park city radiator, “a great place to take a leak.”
        and the bait shop on 120 sells tacos.
        if bradbury guided a tour i’d go along.

  4. Now sue their estates and families for the trauma caused.

    Doesn’t matter if they’re broke. Time to shutdown families of criminal scum cashing in on their relatives getting themselves killed while trying to harm others.

  5. Great news, happy ending!

    If these thugs know we will kill them if they try to come into our homes they will be less likely to pull this crap! Good riddance. Two less demons in the world. Rot in Hell!

    • Now I like the phrase “lead poisoning” but I suppose most folks nowadays would confuse it with the recent doings in Flint, and miss the humor of it.

      • “Now I like the phrase “lead poisoning” but I suppose most folks nowadays would confuse it with the recent doings in Flint, and miss the humor of it.”

        Yeah, with all the modern bullet materials, lead is less commonly associated with guns. One day, there won’t be anyone around who won’t have even seen a lead bullet.

          • “intentional double negative? methinks precafe…”

            Nah. I wrote that while trying to shake a frozen martini out of the blender. Should know better than to try to type one-handed.

      • . . . which he meant to attend during those rare moments when he wasn’t an aspiring rapper working three low-paying jobs to support his children during his breaks from volunteering in soup kitchens and building Habitats For Humanity, helping old ladies across streets, and collecting canned food for the elderly and infirm.

        Now, sadly, all that he’ll be able to do is to vote for Biden/Harris.

  12. My brother & his little family lived ina friend’s basement in Waukegan some 30 year’s ago. It was a chithole then. Like nearby Zion it’s gang ghetto infested. Methinks there’s more to this “shootout”…on a sad note Gale Sayers just died. I sat through a pitch he did for an engine additive called “Mixigo”. Circa 1983.

  14. I can’t say if this connected, but Waukegan, Illinois is not that far from Kenosha, Wisconsin. Only about 30 miles. And we all know what happened there. I also fear that, depending on the ethnicity of the people involved, we could see another flare up of leftist violence.

  16. When you go around breaking into places you’re assuming a set of risks. If it goes sideways I don’t really feel bad for you.

    As jwm points out: 100% of home invasions occur at home. Plan accordingly. Dr. Petit probably wishes he had done so.

    • As I once replied to JWM, it’s also true that 100% of home invasions happen at *other people’s* homes. 😀

      But I get what you’re laying down. That’s only true *so far*.

      I hope it continues to be so, but I’ve got more than hope on my side; there’s also a pistol holstered on my side most of my waking hours, and I’m never more than one minute away from a firearm if I’m at home. It’s an easy precaution to take; I have fire extinguishers that are similarly accessible for similar reasons.

      There are two different ways to look at risk: odds and consequences. If the consequences aren’t severe, go ahead and play the odds. But when the consequences would be catastrophic and permanent, it’s best to be ready to change the game.

    • OK, someone posted a link above.
      Anyone else notice the sign saying “if you can read this you’re in range” in the left window of the house? 🙂

  20. By killing those two scvmbags, the homeowner probably prevented thousands of future violent crimes.

    Give that man a medal and the thanks of a grateful nation.

  21. Well, he’ll never see his expensive firearms again…Usually police confiscated firearms are NEVER returned…I suggest that every who can purchase a Hi Point YEET CANON or a .45 JHP HI Point…..It’s a cheaper alternative to losing you expensive custom .45 or 9mm….Make them take the ” room temperature challenge” on the cheap!

    • “Well, he’ll never see his expensive firearms again”

      Are we certain that only the firearm used will be confiscated as “evidence”? Certain the cops won’t search the house for other firearms?

      Can hear the DA, now: “The defendent had a cache/horde/arsenal of firearms in his/her/whatever possession, but chose to use the most expensive of them as a trophy. We searched, and found multiple less expensive guns that would have served the purpose, but would have added no mistique to the shooting.” He/She/It was eager to shoot someone in order to add to the bragging rights of owning an expensive gun.

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