Grand Prairie resident killed after confronting burglar

[whec716]

Story is from the Dallas Morning News:
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12/15/2009

Grand Prairie resident killed after confronting burglar 9:28 AM CT

09:49 AM CST on Tuesday, December 15, 2009

By BRUCE TOMASO / The Dallas Morning News
btomaso@dallasnews.com

A 69-year-old Grand Prairie resident was killed Sunday when he and his wife got home from church and surprised a burglar in their home.
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Grand Prairie police said they've taken a "person of interest" into custody on an unrelated arrest warrant, but that their investigation is continuing.

They said Johnie Stailey and his wife Betty got to their home, in the 1100 block of Ruea Street, after church on Sunday and found someone burglarizing the residence.

Stailey sent his wife out of the home and instructed her to call police, investigators said. He then confronted the burglar.

Betty Stailey told investigators that she heard gunshots from inside the home and returned to find her husband shot. He was taken to Methodist Medical Center in Oak Cliff, where he was pronounced dead at 10:15pm.

Police described the burglar as a white male in his early 30s who is about 5 feet 5 inches tall with wavy brown hair. He was believed to have been wearing a light blue uniform shirt and blue jeans around the time of the shooting, about 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

Investigators ask that anyone with information about the crime call the Grand Prairie Police at 972-237-8877 or Crime Stoppers at 972-988-8477.

[joe817]

How sad. My prayers are with him and his family. I cannot imagine going into my home to confront a burglar without being armed and prepared to defend my life.

[TexasGal]

My prayers go out to the family. This good man didn't expect to find a burglar in his home. How often do we get home and just walk in assuming we are alone? A BG may have broken in by a door/window away from where we normally come in when arriving home and be waiting inside. This is why I have two large dogs in my house. They let me know if anything is amiss when I come in. The dog hair is a price I willingly pay for the added heads up they provide.

[longtooth]

Today's criminal has no regard for human life.
It is futile to try to reason w/ the vast majority of them.

This story is a simple but perfect picture of the battle between right/wrong, law abiding/criminal, good/evil, work ethic/thief sheep/predator or what ever one might call it.

Aged couple returning from church, man to die at the hand of murderer/thief. He was a murderer. He proved it that day.

Lord, be gracious to the widow & just to murderer. AMEN

[TexasGal]

Update: if anyone has not heard already, the shooter was actually a member of their church and they were not the first to be robbed by him. He had burglarized homes of other members in the past while they were at services. He had also been to the victim's house to help do odd jobs before. A wolf in the fold. I think we can safely conclude he wasn't at church to find God. This is right up there with the scum who read the Obits so they can go rob the houses of the grieving family while they attend the funeral.

[Keith B]

Update: if anyone has not heard already, the shooter was actually a member of their church and they were not the first to be robbed by him. He had burglarized homes of other members in the past while they were at services. He had also been to the victim's house to help do odd jobs before. A wolf in the fold. I think we can safely conclude he wasn't at church to find God. This is right up there with the scum who read the Obits so they can go rob the houses of the grieving family while they attend the funeral.

Our preacher said one time that 'The devil attends church too' and that 'evil always exists, no matter where you go'. This is proof positive he was right.

[HighVelocity]

Today's criminal has no regard for human life.
It is futile to try to reason w/ the vast majority of them.

You've got that right! We have to look at every threat as potentially life threatening.

[WarHawk-AVG]

Update: if anyone has not heard already, the shooter was actually a member of their church and they were not the first to be robbed by him. He had burglarized homes of other members in the past while they were at services. He had also been to the victim's house to help do odd jobs before. A wolf in the fold. I think we can safely conclude he wasn't at church to find God. This is right up there with the scum who read the Obits so they can go rob the houses of the grieving family while they attend the funeral.

Our preacher said one time that 'The devil attends church too' and that 'evil always exists, no matter where you go'. This is proof positive he was right.

"evil" is just a term we use to describe the lack of God
"cold" is just a term we use to describe the lack of heat
"dark" is just a term we use to describe the lack of light

Lowlife scumbag is just a term I use to describe that jerk that used the goodness of the people of the church to rob them, tossing him into a den of hungry lions comes to mind...grrrrr I cant stand a thief and a liar!