A man who was shot and killed by a resident while allegedly attempting to break into a Vista home this week was identified Saturday.
The resident called 911 about 5 a.m. Thursday after spotting a man in the backyard of the home on York Drive near Santa Fe Avenue, sheriff’s Lt. Jospeph Jarjura said. The resident was worried the man was going to try to break in.
While still on the phone with the Sheriff’s Department, the resident told dispatchers the man had gotten into the home through a window, Jarjura said. Dispatchers then heard the resident fire a single gunshot.
Deputies arrived and found 43-year-old Theodore Anthony Stewart, of Vista, mortally wounded, Jarjura said. Deputies and paramedics assisted Stewart, and he was taken to a hospital where he died.
Investigators said there’s no indication that the resident, who was home alone at the time of the shooting, knew Stewart.
“We are still in the early stages of this investigation,” Jarjura said in the release. “We have yet to determine all the facts surrounding this incident.”
Anyone with information about this incident was asked to call the sheriff’s Homicide Unit at (858) 285-6330 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at (888) 580-8477.
