That was the case of a Rockingham County, North Carolina, man wanted for a probation violation who was caught allegedly breaking into a storage building.
Responding officers found Christopher Jay Peche fatally wounded after they received a call at 4:29 a.m. on Tuesday. The homeowner on White Rock Road was awakened by the sound of someone outside approaching his back door.
The now wide awake resident retrieved a firearm and went to check it out.
When he got outside, he reported hearing sounds near his storage building. The resident told investigators he approached the noise and found Peche allegedly attempting to gain entry. A confrontation ensued, and the suspect was shot and killed.
First responders attempted to save his life but to no avail.
Police report the homeowner has cooperated with the investigation and does not face charges currently. They also noted that Peche was a “probation absconder.”
For the Winston-Salem area, this latest incident was the 34th shooting death of 2023. That compares unfavorably with the 21 recorded by this time last year.
It is tough to figure out what possesses a person to risk their life for what might or might not be in a property owner’s storage building. It’s too late to know what the suspect was after, but there’s no chance it was worth his life.
The homeowner was lucky to walk away from a confrontation in the middle of the night with a stranger attempting to break into his property. There was no word if the suspect was armed, but having a firearm may have saved the resident’s life.
