A woman who was protecting three children pushed an intruder out of her house. The intruder was later shot after allegedly breaking into a neighbor’s home down the street.

A Maricopa homeowner shot an intruder, Kenneth Lewis, inside his house Thursday in the Cobblestone Farms subdivision, and one of his neighbors held him until police arrived. The homeowner shot at Lewis, 43, twice, hitting him once in the shoulder. The man is not expected to be charged for the shooting, as police believe it was self-defense.

Police were called around 7 p.m. about an intruder in a house on Garden Lane. One of the residents of the house on Garden Lane was Erik Keen.

Keen said he was asleep upstairs in the house while his girlfriend, Marjorie Trabucco, and three daughters were downstairs when Lewis reportedly entered their house.

“My three daughters and my girlfriend that lives with me saw a guy jump over our back wall,” Keen said. “My girlfriend, Marjorie, went outside, and the guy ran to the side of our house and entered our side garage door and locked it behind him.  From there he went in the house door that goes into the laundry room. Now he’s in my house.”

Keen said Trabucco was locked outside the garage door and had to come back around the house to the back door.

“When she got back in the house, he was in our hallway,” Keen said. “My girlfriend, bless her, went after this guy, grabbed him and started pushing him out the garage door from which he entered. She got him out through the garage.”

Keen said his daughters then ran upstairs and woke him up.

“They said there’s a guy in the house. I got up, and she had him out of the house, and he had taken off down the street,” Keen said. “At that point, I got in my car and I started looking for this guy.”

Keen said he saw the man enter a house on the corner by breaking a window. Keen stopped to confront Lewis, but he took off running, he said.

Lewis reportedly entered a third house, where he was then shot by the homeowner. Despite police reports stating Lewis entered the backyard of the third house, Keen said he saw him slide under the slightly open garage door to enter the house.

“Then he went into a side gate and into the rear of the residence,” MPD spokesman Ricardo Alvarado said. “He began banging on the sliding door. The homeowner was home and told him to leave. The man continued banging on the door.”

The 68-year-old homeowner went into another room and retrieved a firearm.

“The suspect advanced on the homeowner. Fearing for his safety, the homeowner fired two rounds at the individual, striking him once in the arm,” Alvarado said.

Keen said when he saw Lewis enter the garage of the third house, he didn’t have his phone, had no shoes and wasn’t dressed very well, so he returned home to get better clothing and his girlfriend.

“I drove up to that house again and he was still inside,” Keen said. “We gave the police that address. I heard a big crashing sound and it sounded like glass. I heard no gunshot at all. He came crawling back out from under the garage door. I got out of my car and I tackled him. I held him until the police came.”

Keen explained his actions by saying after the man was in his house, he had to go track him down and put an end to the event.

“I have to give my girlfriend all the credit, because she had no fear,” Keen said. “She went into full mama-bear mode and just went after this guy. They are my kids and not her kids, and she just went right after this guy and got him out of the house. She is pretty brave.”

Keen said he believed Lewis was on drugs and hallucinating wildly.

“He wasn’t violent,” Keen said. “He had delusion fear like there was actually someone after him and chasing him. He was imagining people on the walls. ‘There he is officer, there he is, see him officer.’ He was very [delusional]. We never have seen this guy before – ever.”

Lewis was transported to a “hospital in the Valley” by Maricopa Fire and Medical for a non-life-threatening injury to his arm and will initially be charged with trespassing. He will likely have other charges as the investigation continues.

He is not yet booked into the Pinal County Jail.

 

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