Benicia man shoots home intruder

BENICIA, Calif. (KGO) -- An intoxicated man broke into a Benicia house at 4:30 a.m.Wednesday and the homeowner warned him to leave, but when the suspect refused, the man shot him.

"I was just completely in shock," said the homeowner's son Mike Zaretsky.

The suspect, 24-year-old True Hatch, was banging on the back door and the noise woke Zaretsky's parents.

"My mom immediately called 911. He was yelling and screaming, 'I can't believe you locked me out of the house, let me in'. My dad, it's a two-story house, he went out to the landing on the second story and yelled down, you've got the wrong house, you don't belong here, go away, " said Mike Zaretsky.

Police say Hatch grabbed a planter and smashed it through the door.

"He came into the house, was pretty much in the living room, again my dad yelled, 'You don't belong here, get out.' He kept coming into the house, so my dad fired a round, hit him in the leg. He went down, he crawled into the kitchen. At the exact time he made the shot, Benicia police busted in the front door," said Zaretsky.

Officers say Zaretsky's dad acted appropriately.

"He feared for his safety and that of his wife and that's why he shot him," said Benicia police Lt. Mike Greene.

Zaretsky believes Hatch dated a woman whose family recently started renting this home at the bottom of the hill.

ABC7 News spoke to the woman living there. She played coy about her connection to Hatch, but admitted they went to school together and she's sorry this happened.

"You can't mistake one house for another. This is on a steep hill and the house where he was supposed to be is way down at the bottom," said Zaretsky.

Zaretsky's parents are now left with the cleanup and the emotional toll.

"It's hard, they're not used to something like this, no one is," said Zaretsky.

Hatch was treated at the hospital and booked into the Solano County Jail on charges of trespassing, vandalism, prowling and public intoxication.