Owner shoots at 3 thieves, kills one

(see related) (ANSA) - Caserta, March 21 - Three burglars who broke into a property in Villa Literno near Caserta early on Monday, prompting the homeowner to open fire and kill one of them, entered by a ground-floor bathroom window, sources have said.
    The burglars entered the villa while the owners - a couple and two of their three children - were asleep after forcing external window bars, the sources added. The owner opened fire as the three thieves were trying to steal a car. They escaped in their white BMW getway car, dumping the body of the shooting victim - said to be an Albanian national aged around 40 - at a hospital in Aversa. The BMW was later found burning in a field nearby, where firefighters arrived on the scene and put out the blaze.
    "It's not nice to shoot at a person," said the owner's wife. "But it's the eighth time they've tried to break in. If these bandits had told us they needed money we would have helped them as we've done in the past - but you can't break into our home, putting us and our children in danger". The woman added that their daughter raised the alarm when she came home from a party at 3:30 and saw someone driving her dad's car out of their gate. She said the burglars made off with a wallet containing 1,000 euros in cash, and tried to drive off in her husband's car.
    However when her husband started shooting at them from the balcony, the would-be car thief abandoned the car and jumped onto the white BMW instead.
    A neighbour said there had been numerous burglaries in the area recently.
    "The thieves are almost always foreign and we are tired of this situation," the neighbour said. The property owner, an industrial mechanic, has been placed under investigation in connection with the shooting. The possible charges against him have not been made known.