Tucson, Arizona

From the Tucson Citizen of January 3, 2007

1 fatally shot, 1 wounded in home invasion; 2 arrested

One home robbery suspect was killed and another critically wounded when six men burst into a Southwest Side home Tuesday night, sheriff's deputies say.

As the suspects yelled for people in the home to get on the floor, a man in a back bedroom locked his door and loaded his shotgun, Sgt. James Ogden said in a news statement released late this morning.

The statement gave this account:

One of the armed intruders kicked open the locked bedroom door and the resident fired a blast from the shotgun, critically wounding the intruder.

When another intruder appeared in the open bedroom doorway, the resident fired again, this time fatally. The other intruders then picked up the wounded man and fled.

A woman, two other men and a 9-year-old were in the home when the gunmen burst in about 10:40 p.m.

About five minutes after arriving at the invaded home in the 5000 block of West Valencia Road, deputies got word of a shooting victim in a house in the 5000 block of West Corona Road, about a half mile south of the crime scene.

Deputies went there and found a gunshot victim and four other men.

Deputies detained and questioned the men, releasing two and booking two others into the Pima County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder under the state's felony murder law. That law allows a person to be charged with murder if someone dies during the commission of certain felonies, such as robbery, even if the suspect was not the killer.

Arrested were Philip Valencia, 28, of the 800 block of West Calle Ventura, and Robert Escobedo, 25, of the 1400 block of West Sonora Street. The wounded man was not immediately arrested.

Neither the names of those in the invaded home nor that of the dead man were released.