A pair of suspects, described as “armed, desperate, would-be cop killers,” decided to break into a home after shooting at police. Unfortunately for them, their plans would be foiled by the Texas homeowner, who quickly taught them that they had picked the wrong house.
Anthony Cardenas, a bearded and rather imposing Texas man, found himself in the middle of a chaotic situation around 3 am on a Thursday morning when a pair of armed and dangerous crooks broke into his San Antonio home, The Blaze reported. Unbeknownst to the homeowner, the men were on the run from sheriff’s deputies. After entering the Texas home, however, the criminals quickly learned they picked the wrong residence.
According to KSAT, the two suspects were busted breaking into cars after authorities received a call about car burglaries and sent two Bexar County sheriff’s deputies to Baffin Peak in response. As one of the deputies stepped out of his patrol vehicle, he was met by a barrage of gunfire as the suspects began shooting at the officers, who had arrived on the scene. Two bullets struck the deputy’s vehicle, according to the sheriff.
The second suspect also fired shots at the other deputy, who was chasing him, and one of the bullets hit a parked car. The shots eventually ended, but only because the suspects reportedly ran out of ammo. “I’m told the only reason that suspect stopped firing is [that] his weapon ran out of ammo,” Sheriff Javier Salazar said. “He ran it dry in an effort to try to kill this deputy.”
That’s about the time the suspects quickly devised another plan. After shooting at the deputies and allegedly running out of bullets, the armed suspects took off on foot before eventually breaking into Anthony Cardenas’ home in the Amber Creek subdivision near Highway 90 and Loop 1604. The crooks ran through Cardenas’ house before grabbing his keys, and that’s when things took a turn.
“They came in, they got the keys, and basically, I’m assuming they were looking for a getaway car,” Anthony Cardenas recalled. After snatching his keys, the suspects managed to get into Cardenas’ vehicle, but that’s about the time he decided enough was enough. “I pulled the door open, and we got into a fight inside the truck,” Cardenas admitted.
Not about to let the crooks get away with his vehicle, Cardenas put up a fight and flew into battle with at least one of the suspects inside his truck. “[W]e went from the driver’s side to the passenger’s side. We both fell out,” the Texas homeowner recalled, describing his hand-to-hand fight with one of the suspects. According to Cardenas, the suspects took off running after the struggle, taking his keys with them.
Thankfully, however, the criminals didn’t get far. Deputies soon caught up with them and took both suspects into custody with Sheriff Javier Salazar praising Cardenas for his efforts. “That homeowner put up quite a fight and, in fact, caused quite a bit of injury to one of the suspects, who is a bit bloody,” Salazar said during his press conference about the frightening incident.
Calling the suspects “especially violent people” and “armed, desperate, would-be cop killers,” Sheriff Salazar explained the suspects tried to hide but one of the deputies spotted a “pair of feet” behind a parked car. They were arrested shortly after their bloody battle with the Texas homeowner, and according to Salazar, their weapons were recovered.
Giving credit to Cardenas for helping to stop the two men who were accused of shooting at sheriff’s deputies, Salazar said he was “proud of that homeowner” for “making sure that that suspect’s not going to forget breaking into that house any time soon,” saying that Cardenas “did a really good job at going hand-to-hand with these dangerous suspects” and “kudos to him for taking that stand and protecting his home.”
Although neither deputy was hurt, it wasn’t for lack of trying, according to the sheriff. “It’s just luck, it’s just by God’s grace that we’re not talking about two dead deputies,” Salazar admitted, noting that the deputies exercised serious restraint in nabbing the suspects. “These deputies didn’t have to fire a single shot to get these two armed, desperate, would-be cop killers into custody,” he said.
Neither suspect was cooperative with telling authorities their identities, but Salazar said they are in their late teens or early 20s, adding, “I’m gonna bet my next 10 paychecks that they’ve got a criminal record.” He’s probably right, but if they didn’t before, they will now. Both suspects were hit with multiple charges, including the serious offense of attempted capital murder.
Don’t mess with Texas. While Anthony Cardenas was admittedly lucky that the armed suspects were all out of bullets, we still applaud his efforts in stopping these would-be cop killers. Thanks to a bit of street justice, Sheriff Javier Salazar says the suspects were slowed down, allowing authorities to catch up with them. For that, we say job well done, Mr. Cardenas! We love a story with a happy ending.
