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Vancouver homeowner shoots and kills intruder

by Evan Sernoffsky and KGW staff

Bio | Email | Follow: @KGWNews

Posted on August 25, 2012 at 9:12 AM

Updated yesterday at 8:20 PM

VANCOUVER, Wash. – A homeowner shot and killed an intruder Saturday after the man ripped down a fence, went through an unsecured door, and burst through a locked bedroom door, deputies said.

The intruder, 42-year-old Christopher Billings  of Kansas City, Missouri, broke into a house near the 3700 block of Northeast 54th Avenue shortly after 2 a.m., said Sgt. Kevin Allais with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.

Authorities said the family dog barked and alerted the homeowners that an intruder was in their house.

The family locked themselves in the bedroom and the husband armed himself with a handgun. Billings then burst through the locked bedroom door and the homeowner fired his gun twice while on the phone with police, Allais said

Just before the break in, a Washington State Patrol Trooper was processing a suspected DUI driver half a block from the house, Allais said.

The trooper saw a man stumbling down the sidewalk mumbling incoherently. While troopers were looking for the man, they got a 911 call from the homeowner that the intruder was in his house, Allais said.

The mumbling man police were looking for may have been Billings because he matched their description.

The homeowner did not know Billings, police said.

KGW reporter Erica Heartquist contributed to this report.