When a man entered his house, he was startled by an intruder. The unwelcomed guest exited a room, “yelling and screaming.” The next sound that filled the air is one neither of them will easily forget.
Kelvin White learned the hard way that he had picked the wrong house when he decided to trespass on another man’s property. The Atlanta home, which was recently renovated, was on the real estate market, and White wasn’t supposed to be there. He apparently thought it was a safe place to hang out. The intruder would quickly learn how wrong he was when he was surprised by the homeowner.
The unnamed homeowner decided to stop by his property on Arthur Street that fateful Friday morning to check on things when he was startled by the home intruder, later identified as Kelvin White. Immediately, the homeowner “noticed the door was open, and a man came out of the room yelling and screaming,” Atlanta Police Officer Stephanie Brown explained, according to Fox 5 Atlanta. The next sound sent White running from the home.
According to Officer Brown, the homeowner “felt like his life was in danger,” so he pulled his gun and started firing at the intruder. That was enough for 28-year-old Kelvin White to decide the accommodations were suddenly lacking, and he made a run for it. White high-tailed it out the back door of the house, but he didn’t make it out unscathed. He had been shot in the leg. However, that didn’t slow him down at first.
Although wounded, White made it about a mile down the road to Cooper Street before he decided that he needed to stop. Bleeding from the gunshot wound to his leg, he knocked on a door and begged for water. “He told me he had been shot and needed water,” the man who answered that door recalled. “I told him I wasn’t going to give him any water; he needed to call 911.”
After authorities were called, police arrived and quickly figured out that Kelvin White, with a bullet wound to his leg, was the home intruder who had been shot by the homeowner on Arthur Street. He was arrested and charged with criminal trespass, but this wasn’t his first rodeo. Just three weeks prior, White was also charged with criminal trespass in another case when a different homeowner found him inside their residence.
During that ordeal, which took place on Lucille Avenue, the homeowner left the house and called 911, and White was arrested by police. Apparently not learning his lesson, Kelvin White found himself being shot this time. Of course, this isn’t the course of action police recommend if the homeowner can avoid it. “We do advise homeowners to exit the property and call the police so we can handle it,” Officer Brown explained.
At least one neighbor of the gun-firing homeowner expressed his belief that the homeowner who fired at White did the right thing, saying stealing and robberies are a problem in the neighborhood. “Ain’t nobody got no business on that property but the homeowner. That’s private property,” neighbor Jimmy Thompson told reporters. He also added that he is surprised the homeowner “didn’t kill him,” referring to the unwanted intruder.
Indeed, Kelvin White got lucky. He could have suffered a lot worse than a gunshot wound to the leg after entering someone else’s home uninvited. Hopefully, he finally learned his lesson and can serve as a reminder to other criminals: Crime comes with consequences — and they can be rather painful. As for the homeowner who shot the intruder, he won’t face charges for defending himself and his property. That’s a story with a happy ending.
