An elderly Korean vet who sleeps with a loaded semi-automatic pistol under his pillow reportedly fatally shot one of two intruders who broke into his Pennsylvania home.
"It was a me-or-them" situation, 84-year-old Don Lutz of Ellport, Pa., told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I wasn't scared at all. I had my gun. I'm an expert with guns. You do what you have to do.”
Ellwood City police Lt. David Kingston said Lutz shot the intruder at "point-blank range in the chest,” early last Friday; the victim died at the scene and the second intruder fled.
Lawrence County District Attorney Joshua Lamancusa told the outlet Lutz won’t be charged with a crime, and “was authorized to use deadly force under these circumstances.”
Lutz told the news outlet said he owns several weapons and has made it a habit to sleep with a loaded pistol.
"What's the point of having a gun if it's not loaded?" said Lutz, who served 16 months on the front line during the Korean War.
"It was pitch black. I met one face-on, and he reached out and grabbed at me. I shot him," Lutz told the outlet about his encounter, saying he used his .380 semiautomatic gun in the confrontation.
After the wounded intruder and accomplice grappled with Lutz on the kitchen floor, Lutz said the victim "rolled over dead” and the second man fled.
“The police couldn't find the bullet. It went clean through him," Lutz said. "I hope the police find the other guy."
Lutz, who lives alone, has been married three times, and has no children. He retired from a now-closed Armstrong World Industries plant where he was a machinist, carpenter, and sheet metal worker, and a union officer, he told the Post-Gazette.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.