Sources tell NBC Bay Area that San Jose’s 46th homicide of 2012 is a case of vigilante violence.
It happened on New Year’s Eve at the Summer Breeze apartments on Lewis Road in San Jose when a suspected burglar was shot dead.
Police have not wanted to say much about the shooter or the victim in this case, however sources say the shooter was frustrated because of the rash of burglaries in his apartment complex.
Sources say the shooter is a maintenance worker at the complex and that he did not plan to kill the suspected burglar, just scare him or make a citizen’s arrest.
Those sources say the tenants at Summer Breeze were frustrated because they had surveillance video of the burglaries and still could not get police to open the case. Burglaries are considered “priority three” or lower priority crimes, and with staffing levels, it’s hard to get a police officer to respond.
Some of the rank-and-file say this is a case of citizen or vigilante justice and they blame the low police staffing levels for San Jose’s 46th homicide of 2012.