Fairfield, California

From the Vallejo Times Herald of February 9, 2006

Fairfield man kills would-be robber

Police say a father shot and killed an armed intruder in self-defense Tuesday night during a botched home invasion robbery.

Ahmad Rashad Mahdee, 28, of San Francisco was airlifted to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, where he was pronounced dead from two gunshot wounds to the torso, police said Wednesday.

Citing safety concerns, police are withholding victims' names.

At about 10:30 p.m., Mahdee and three other men approached a home on the 1700 block of Indiana Street, where the father and a friend were standing in the front yard, police said.

The four forced the father and his friend into the home at gunpoint, police reported. The father's young daughter was inside at the time.

Once inside, Mahdee took the father into a bedroom at gunpoint and demanded money, while his companions held the friend and daughter at bay, police said.

Fearing for his life, the father reportedly grabbed a registered .38 snub-nose revolver from his nightstand. After a struggle over the weapon, the father fired his gun several times, hitting Mahdee twice in the torso, police said.

The other three men heard the gunfire and fled on foot. Suspect descriptions were "sketchy," Lt. Tony Shipp said, but investigators are gathering information on possible associates of Mahdee.

The father, his friend and the young girl all escaped injury, police said, and investigators [sic] at the scene determined that the father had acted lawfully in self-defense, so he was not detained.