Law enforcement officials in Tennessee arrested 40-year-old Victor Rodriguez last week after he told them that he opened fire at a group of men who were allegedly trying to steal his car from outside his home.
The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office charged Rodriguez with one count of felony reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon after the incident last weekend. If convicted, he could face up to 6 years in prison.
Video of the incident showed several individuals “lurking around cars” outside of the home, Fox 13 Memphis reported, adding that the suspected car thieves “used burglary tools and key fob programmers to get inside of a van outside the house.”
Surveillance cameras inside the family’s home notified them that their vehicle was in the process of being stolen when Rodriguez went outside to confront the suspects. The suspects fired multiple rounds at him before he fired back several times, according to security video. At least 28 shots were fired during the exchange.
His wife was baffled by law enforcement’s decision to charge her husband over the ordeal.
“When they were talking to him, from what I saw, it was like they were trying to find ways to charge him,” she said. “That doesn’t sound right. Why would you put pressure on the victim when you should put pressure for the suspects to be found.”
“Right now I’m just thankful that no bullets hit him or my daughters or myself,” she added.
Police say Rodriguez told them that he could not see what he was shooting at and that he even allegedly admitted to closing his eyes while shooting because he was scared, the report.
Rodriguez’s wife was upset that the suspects were not caught and were “probably sleeping or partying” while her “husband was in jail, trying to get released for something where he was innocent.”
She said that she was trying to convince her children that the area was still a safe place to live after the incident.
“For my girls and mom, it was like a movie. It was like we were in a movie,” she said. “When I first told them we were going back to the house, they were like, ‘No mommy, don’t do that to us.’ They said, ‘Mommy, we do not want to stay there. What if they come back and get us?’”