Tenant shoots suspect during Coram home invasion

(Coram - WABC, May 22, 2007) (WABC) -- Shots were fired during a daring broad daylight burglary attempt Tuesday.

Late Tuesday night, Eyewitness News has learned that drugs were involved in an armed home invasion in Coram.

Police say the incident happened on Sharon Avenue, where a tenant opened fire at a burglary suspect.

Long Island reporter Emily Smith has the latest.

This has been a frightening day for this family. Tenants could be seen power-blasting blood off their sidewalk, which the suspect left as he ran off.

Police say that an 18-year-old boy has been arrested and charged with burglary. They add the shot, apparently fired by the female tenant, was in self defense.

Matthew Swift just wants to get into his home, a beautiful ranch he bought six months ago as a fixer upper.

Now it's surrounded by police tape, and crime scene investigators tell him it was the target of a violent break in involving gunfire.

"I'm a little freaked out," he said. "Absolutely. It's definately scary."

Swift rents the basement apartment to a couple in their 20s. His tenants told Eyewitness News that a man walked right into their apartment around 11:30 Tuesday morning, armed with a pistol.

That's when the tenants says they grabbed a shotgun to defend themselves. Police say the female tenant then fired a shot that hit the suspect in the shoulder. That's when he supposedly ran off.

Swift says, from what he's seen, his tenants are good people.

"They give us rent on time," he said. "They're good people. I don't know much about them."

The tenants, still visibly shaken, say the perpetrator ran from their home, leaving a trail of blood behind.

Now they say they're afraid to go to sleep. And no doubt, so are neighbors who don't know what to make of it all.

"You just never know," one neighbor said. "You could be in the best neighborhood in the world and you don't know what's going on next door."

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