Man shoots and kills suspected burglar who said she was pregnant
On Wednesday, a Long Beach, California, man stunned audiences watching at home when he matter-of-factly discussed on the local news how he shot and killed a suspected burglar. "She says, 'Don't shoot me, I'm pregnant, I'm going to have a baby,' and I shot her anyway," Tom Greer, 80, told NBC4. "The lady didn't run as fast as the man so I shot her in the back twice. She's dead."
On Thursday, the woman was identified as 28-year-old Andrea Miller of Long Beach. The male suspect, Gus Adams, 26, was booked on a robbery and murder charge, Long Beach police said in a statement. The Los Angeles County coroner's office is scheduled to perform an autopsy on Miller Friday, and will confirm if she was pregnant or not.
Greer said he found the two inside of his home on Tuesday. "When I went in there, they tackled me," he said. "Both of them jumped on top of me." Greer said the pair went to break into his safe, and he took the opportunity to grab his gun. He fired it and the suspects ran, but Greer gave chase and shot Miller with his .22 caliber Smith and Wesson.
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Long Beach police are investigating the case to determine if Greer will face charges for the shooting. His estranged wife, Dorothy, said that the house had been burglarized four times in the past, once while she was home. "It's scary," she said. "Either way it goes, it's scary. It was just a bad situation, all the way around." --Catherine Garcia
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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