A 46-year-old California man is in critical condition after he was shot by a 41-year-old man whose house he’d broken into in Dover on Tuesday night, according to the Dover Police Department.
Police said the 46-year-old and another man got into a fight with a 41-year-old man at 11:33 p.m. on the porch of his home on the 2400 block of White Oak Road. The man tried to run into his house, but the other two men forced their way in, according to police. One of them had a gun.
The homeowner fired at them with a handgun, hitting the California man in the chest multiple times, police said. The injured man was found by state police a few blocks away and was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
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Police reported they found multiple shell casings on the ground outside the 41-year-old man’s house and said it “appeared there was some type of struggle” inside the house.
When police got a warrant to search the house, court records show they found almost 62 grams of fentanyl, 3 grams of heroin, “numerous rounds” of ammunition, illegal firecrackers and other tools used in drug dealing. The man had been arrested for assault in August, according to court documents, and was not allowed to own a gun or ammunition.
The man ran away before police arrived, but was caught the following day in Middletown. He was charged multiple times for the possession of a controlled substance, the intention to deliver it, ammunition and weapons by a prohibited person and drug paraphernalia.
The shooting was not mentioned at all in the police report filed with the court.
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The 41-year-old man was incarcerated at Sussex Correctional Institution on $146,200 cash bail. As of Friday, he had not been charged with shooting the 46-year-old man.
Dover police are working with the Department of Justice to “determine whether additional charges are appropriate,” according to a Police Department spokesperson.
Police are not publicly identifying the 46-year-old man who was shot and do not know the identity of the other man involved in the incident.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Dover Police Department at 302-736-7130 or call Delaware Crime Stoppers at 800-TIP-3333.
Send story tips or ideas to Hannah Edelman at hedelman@delawareonline.com. For more reporting, follow them on Twitter at @h_edelman.
