Authorities say an off-duty Chicago Police officer shot and seriously wounded a teen who broke into her South Side home Friday morning.
It happened at a home in the 7900 block of South Sacramento in the Ashburn neighborhood at about 9:40 a.m.
Police say the officer, identified as Latauska Horton, woke up after hearing noises on the first floor of her home.
When the officer went downstairs to investigate with her pistol in hand, she shot the male intruder after he lunged at her after ignoring orders to show his hands, according to Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden.
Police say the intruder, believed to be 17 or 18, had climbed through a window to get inside the house and according to a CPD news release, was removing items from the home.
Neighbor Dorothy Campbell said she heard Horton yell at the intruder.
"What are you doing in my home? How did you get there?" Campbell said she heard. "She kept telling don't get up the police aren't here yet, don't get up."
The teen was shot several times and is listed in serious condition at a local hospital. Officials say he's expected to survive.
"That was the wrong house for someone to pick to go in," neighbor Rosetta Foster said. "I feel she did right if somebody he came in her house. She did what she was supposed to do, it was either her or him."
Horton's sister told NBC 5 that Horton's home was also broken into in 2010, but she wasn't home at the time.
Neighbor Patricia Williams said Horton had warned her earlier in the week that she noticed suspicious people walking down the street, and urged her to keep an eye out.
Horton, a 23-year veteran of the force, was at police headquarters for several hours Friday detailing her version of what happened.
Area Central detectives and the Independent Police Review Authority are investigating the case, but as of Friday evening, no charges were filed against the intruder.
