(NV) Newspaper columnist shoots intruder 10-20-04

Pahrump Valley Times – Nye County’s Largest Newspaper Circulation
Address:http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2004/10/20/news/invasion.html

October 20, 2004
HOME INVASION
PVT columnist shoots intruder
MAN CRASHED ROCK THROUGH DOOR WINDOW TO GAIN ENTRY; SUSPECT’S FAMILY
CONTACTS POLICE
By DOUG McMURDO

Dan Simmons uses a pen to lend perspective to where a bullet he fired
through the shoulder of a home intruder early Tuesday morning lodged
into a doorjamb. Pahrump Valley Times outdoors columnist Dan Simmons
shot and wounded an intruder Tuesday morning during a terrifying home
invasion.

According to Lt. Bill Becht, David Patillo Jr., described as a Hispanic
male in his early to mid 20s, was preparing to surrender to authorities,
though that had not occurred by press time.

Simmons, still shaken from the incident a few hours later, said he was
awakened at 5:30 a.m. by a woman living in his guesthouse who said
somebody was trying to break into the residence at Simmons’ central
Pahrump home.

“I grabbed my gun and went outside as my neighbor called 911,” recounted
Simmons.
“Nothing. Nobody was there. The police showed up immediately, but there
were no bad guys.”

Not too long after the police departed, the neighbor and her
seven-year-old daughter were at Simmons’ home. The woman was making tea
when she told Simmons someone was walking to the door.

Thinking it was a policeman; Simmons walked to the kitchen door and
looked through the door window to see who had arrived. “This is when
things got really dramatic,” said Simmons. “He was a small man with a
hooded sweatshirt, work gloves and one of those Mickey Mouse
respirators. All I could see were his eyes.”‘

Simmons said the man told him to step outside; instead he went to
retrieve his .357 handgun for the second time in an hour. He ordered his
neighbor and her daughter into a backroom. A moment later the inlaid
glass of his front door shattered. Simmons returned to the kitchen and
saw the suspect in his home. He aimed and fired, hitting the suspect in
the left shoulder. The bullet traveled through the man’s body and lodged
into the doorjamb.

Simmons said the man dropped down, uttered an expletive, and then stood
back up and fled. Police were once again summoned to the home. “I told
them I shot the guy.”

Simmons can’t quite connect the dots, but he believes Patillo knew his
victim. “He disconnected my phone by taking the phone in my shop off the
hook. Somebody had to know that phone was in there.” Simmons suspects
Patillo might have been one of the workmen to perform a variety of
construction jobs at his home, but he can’t say for sure.

Clearly, however, the man knows enough about Simmons that he doesn’t
believe his home was targeted at random. After the man fled,
Simmons said the suspect called him on his cell phone at around 7 a.m.
Tuesday. “He was mumbling, he sounded like he was sick … he kept
saying ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’ That’s so bizarre.”

Patillo reportedly fled to nearby Comstock Park where he shed his bloody
clothes. According to Sheriff Tony DeMeo, who said Simmons’ actions
constituted a clear-cut case of home defense, Patillo was not seriously
injured. “(The suspect’s) family has been in contact with us,” DeMeo
said.

Lt. Bill Becht conjectured Patillo would turn himself into authorities
once the family retains an attorney. There’s a possibility the lawyer
might handle another case for the man. On Sept. 28 he was arrested and
charged with statutory sexual seduction.

For Simmons and his neighbor life took a dramatic turn this week.
“Yesterday I felt secure in my own home,” he said. “Today, I don’t feel
safe. Not one bit … and I’m taking precautions. I advise everyone else
in town to do the same.”