GhLinks Media
A Texas man identified as Ethan Rodriguez has revealed how he fired through the door of his Dallas apartment at two men posing as maintenance workers and trying to break in.
On Saturday 19th August, Ethan Rodriguez was in his apartment bathroom around 6 p.m. when someone he didn’t recognize knocked on his door and claimed to be a maintenance worker.
Rodriguez, who answered his digital doorbell and home security camera on his phone, said the suspect, identified as Aaron Contreras, 30, said he was a maintenance worker who was there to check the filter to the air conditioner.
Rodriguez, who fired 13 shots at the suspects, said if he didn’t think fast enough he would ‘probably be dead today.’
The suspects ran from the areas as police later arrived to find bullet holes in the wall of the apartment across the hall.
Ethan Rodriguez explains how he fired at fake maintenance workers who tried to break through his apartment door
In an interview with WFAA, Rodriguez revealed what happened.
Rodriguez asked the man: ‘Can I help you?’
‘Uh … yes, they came to check your air filters …’ the suspect replied.
But Rodriguez became suspicious after the man made two statements that didn’t add up.
He knew Contreras was lying because the last time he tried to get the air filter changed, maintenance said they couldn’t help.
Rodriguez also noted that contrary to what Contreras stated, nobody had come by to check the filters earlier that day.
‘He lied twice … So I felt suspicious about it anyway,’ he said.
Rodriguez said his attire was also a giveaway.
‘He had on what looked like a tracksuit with the black shoes and I think it was a blue sweatshirt and then he had a bandana on but he was playing the part. He had the whole notepad and everything,’ he said to WFAA.
Rodriguez then decided to tell Contreras that he wasn’t home.
‘Nobody’s home right now,’ he can be heard saying in the video. ‘You’ll have to wait until another day.’
Contreras leaves and then returns a couple of minutes later with a masked man and a gun, police said.
The doorbell camera captured the moment the suspect changed demeanors, unleashing a violent side underneath his façade as he forcefully attempted to kick in the door of the apartment.
Without opening his front door, Rodriguez eventually grabbed his handgun and fired several shots through the door, hitting the wall in front of it.
Bullets can be seen flying into his neighbor’s apartment in the footage.
‘I couldn’t think properly … I had to hurry up and find my firearm … come back and position itself … facing directly at the door.’
‘I had to think quickly … I wasn’t going to let nothing happen to me or my brother,’ he added.
Contreras fired two rounds in response before quickly fleeing the scene along with the second suspect.
Dallas police officers responded to the Interlace Apartments where they found 13 bullet casings, with 13 bullet holes exiting the front door, and two entering the door into the homeowner’s apartment.
