A South Vienna man died early this morning after deputies said he was shot while trespassing at a home in the 800 block of East Blee Road.
Authorities identified the man as Mark W. Owen, of 812 Sylvan Shores Drive. Deputies responded to the home shortly before 7 a.m., after a woman said she woke to find the suspect standing on her back porch, wearing a burgundy sweatshirt, shorts and running shoes. The woman was frightened and called a next-door neighbor, who arrived at the scene and confronted the suspect with a shotgun, according to Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly.
Owen became aggressive, according to information from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, and the neighbor shot him once in the upper torso.
Upon arrival, first responders began providing emergency first aid, until the members of the Hustead Emergency Medical Services took over treatment, authorities said. Owen was taken by medical helicopter to Miami Valley Hospital, where he died from his injuries.
On a 911 call released Monday, the woman inside the home tells a dispatcher that she called her neighbor because someone was trying to break into her house and then heard shots on her deck.
She said before her neighbor arrived she yelled, “I have a gun,” repeatedly to make the male go away.
While on the phone with 911 she says she can see her neighbor standing near her deck with a long barrel gun and cannot see the, “prowler.” She assumes he is on the ground.
The woman also says her two children were in the house with her when she heard the man outside. Her husband was not home.
Another call came into 911 from a neighbor who says the man, “came at my husband.” She says she can see the man on the ground and says, “My husband shot him.”
An autopsy is pending with the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office. Investigators from that office could not be reached for comment Saturday afternoon.
It is not yet clear why Owen was at the home, or how he arrived there. It is also not clear if he intoxicated at the time of the incident. Kelly said none of the residents in the neighborhood could identify the him, and he was not carrying any identification.
A woman who knew Owen arrived at the scene after the shooting, and is being interviewed by authorities, Kelly said. Deputies are also interviewing the neighbor and the home owner for additional information.
Some of the Owen’s clothes, including a belt, were found in a field near the road, Kelly said.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation was assisting at the scene.
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