Homeowner opens fire on crooks who broke into his garage in middle of night to steal motorcycles, cops say

A South Carolina homeowner opened fire on suspected burglars who broke into his garage in the middle of the night last week to steal motorcycles, police said.

Horry County police were called just before 4 a.m. Friday to a home off Green Sea Road in Green Sea for a burglary, WMBF-TV reported.

The third suspect hasn’t been identified, the station said.

The suspects and a third unnamed suspect broke into the homeowner’s garage in an attempt to steal his motorcycles, the station said, citing a police report.

But the homeowner got a notification on his phone about detected movement, and so he got up, caught the suspects in his garage, and opened fire, WMBF said, adding that the suspects took off.

A dog team caught Roderick Bell and Dimitrious Murray after they abandoned their vehicle on St. Joseph Drive and ran away, the station said, adding that they both face burglary charges. They're both 27 years old, according to jail information, and they were still incarcerated Thursday morning.

Murray was shot in his right shoulder during the incident, WMBF reported.

The third suspect hasn’t been identified, the station said.

How are observers reacting?

As you might imagine, commenters on WMBF's Facebook page entry about the incident are decidedly in the homeowner's corner:

• "Good," one commenter wrote. "They got what they deserved. The homeowner should get an award."
• "Justified," another user concurred. "You can't count on the justice system to lock them up for long enough; they just repeat offend so sometimes you just have to take it into your own hands and defend you life and property."
• "They ought to consider themselves lucky they got to ride with the police instead of the coroner," another commenter opined.
• "Good!" another user declared. "If you're big enough to enter someone's property with ill-intent, you better be ready to face what's in there."

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