Armed Citizen Shoots, Kills Home Invader in His Bedroom

I won’t lie and pretend I don’t think about hearing a bump in the night, then sweeping the house like I’m a member of DevGru looking for Osama bin Laden. I like to wargame out possibilities, and considering my wife and I sleep in our bedroom on one side of the house, and the kids are on the other end, I’ll probably do that if we have to. Otherwise, I’d mostly just hunker down in the bedroom to keep my wife safe.

But that bedroom door is, as they say, there for your protection, not mine.

Unfortunately for one bad guy in Austin, TX, he didn’t realize that.

On Wednesday, September 23, 2026, at 3:51 a.m., Austin Police (APD) officers responded to a report of a burglary in the 200 block of Virtus Bend. When officers arrived on the scene, they located a male, later identified as Dmario Antonie Jones, with apparent gunshot wounds. Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services (ATCEMS) arrived on scene and attempted life-saving measures, however, Mr. Jones succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased at 4:10 a.m.

APD Homicide Detectives and the Austin Forensic Science Crime Specialists responded to process the crime scene. The preliminary investigation determined that Mr. Jones entered a residence, proceeded into the bedroom, and was shot by the homeowner during the commission of the burglary. The homeowner was interviewed by detectives and has been fully cooperative with the investigation. The homeowner has since been released, and no charges have been filed at this time.

And, honestly, I doubt there will ever be any charges. For a Stand Your Ground state, this is as clear-cut as it can get. It wasn’t just the bad guy in your home, but trying to come into your bedroom.

I mean, I get Austin isn’t really Texas, but the laws all still apply there, and there are probably more guns in Austin than in most similarly leftist cities in the country. Why? It’s Texas, and Texas is just Texas. Even the lefties “pack heat,” as I’m sure they call it, there. At least, more do than you might otherwise find.

So, Mr. Jones entered the home, walked to the bedroom, and entered, only to learn the error of his ways.

Unfortunately for him, he has no time to start walking the straight and narrow.

I hate the loss of life, but it was Jones’s decision to break into someone else’s home, apparently, and it’s on him for going into the bedroom. He didn’t have to do that, but he did, making him responsible for the ramifications of his actions. The fact that those ramifications were fatal is also on him.

But everyone he knows now knows what happened to him. They know, and maybe a few of them will rethink their own choices in the future.

Every life has meaning. Sometimes, though, that meaning is to serve as an object lesson to others about what happens when you stray from the path of the righteous and into the realm of criminal sin. Sucks for his loved ones, but maybe they should have taken some steps to make sure he didn’t venture down this path in the first place.

Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.

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