SIX LAKES, Mich. - Michigan State Police are investigating an incident where a homeowner says he shot a man who broke into his home Tuesday night.
Cody Rockafellow tells FOX 17 that he and his wife Julie came home at about 11 p.m. Tuesday and noticed that the lights were on and some of the doors were open.
"As soon as I walked inside I noticed that my dog Addie was laying on the ground just cowering and she was very nervous and that set off another red flag,” Cody said.
Cody went downstairs and grabbed his gun and followed footprints in the snow heading out the basement door. He says he folowed fresh tracks in the snow over to a corner of his yard near a building where he makes maple syrup.
"I went around the corner of the building, didn't see anybody, very cautiously approached and thought 'well they must've just left.'"
However, Rockafellow then says he spotted the suspect.
"I just happened to glance left and I saw somebody standing behind a tree."
He says the suspect then came out with a shotgun and that's when he shot him.
"I kind of turned and shined the flashlight on him and he came around the right side of the tree and the first thing I saw was his eyes and then I looked down and I could see the barrel of a shotgun swinging up, and then I turned and I shot twice and I dove down and could hear something hit," Cody said. "The first shot was like a thud and the second was like a crack like it had hit metal."
Cody thinks the man might've been wearing some sort of vest since he was able to run away. He eventually went through the woods and got picked up by a car that sped away, Cody says.
"When he came around the corner and I saw the shotgun barrel that's when I knew I had to act quick and shoot him because if I didn't it was going to be me," Cody says.
Cody hopes the situation serves as a kind of lesson to other homeowners.
"Be ready for anything," he said. "Things do happen and it's a bad world, even in a little small town. I've always prepared for scenarios like this, but I never actually thought I would have to do it. It's a horror that no one ever wants to face, but if you're prepared for it, it makes it 1,000 times better."
Nothing from the home was taken, but Cody says the case to one of his guns was left open.
Anyone with information on this incident is asked to call the Michigan State Police Lakeview Post at 989-352-8444.
