This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Salt Lake City man who confronted a pair of alleged home burglars last week — and shot one of them in the abdomen — has been charged with aggravated assault and firearms violations.
Glen Wayne Decker, 51, was charged Thursday in 3rd District Court with aggravated assault and three counts of felony discharge of a firearm, all third-degree felonies punishable by up to five years in prison.
Decker and his wife, who had been caretaking the vacant home of his elderly mother-in-law, became aware that someone had been breaking into the home, located near 1100 E. Harvard Ave. (about 1150 South), according to police Detective Veronica Montoya.
Leaving the back door — broken from a past intrusion — unsecured, Decker and his wife, both armed with revolvers, were waiting when the burglary suspects, a man and woman, showed up just before 10 p.m. on April 27, police said.
As the burglars came through the darkened home with flashlights, Decker and his wife confronted them and demanded they wait for the police or be shot, police said.
The female suspect did as she was told.
The male suspect pushed past Decker, and with his hands up, tried to back out the door, and when he refused demands to stop, Decker shot him in the stomach, police said.
The man then fled outside, getting stuck in a tree when his backpack got entangled in the branches, and then fleeing again when he got loose.
Decker told police that he then "unloaded the rest of the bullets at a car that the suspect drove away in. The wounded man later turned up at a hospital in serious condition.
Police have said that Decker was arrested because the male suspect was unarmed, did not apparently pose a threat to the caretakers' safety, and could have been allowed to escape.
Both of the alleged burglars were on parole.
The 46-year-old female suspect, Paulette Marie Gray — paroled last October after serving time for drug possession — was booked into jail and then sent back to prison.
The 50-year-old male suspect, Shane Kennedy — paroled in January after serving time for theft by receiving — had not been booked into jail or returned to prison as of Friday.