A man broke down the heavy front door of a war veteran’s home last night before shooting the vet and leaving with nothing.
"All I heard was a lot scuffling and bumping and somebody fighting," said the victim's brother Willie Brown.
Around 8:30 p.m. Monday, Philadelphia Police responded to the row home on the 3100 block of Tasker Street in the Grays Ferry neighborhood of South Philadelphia.
“We have a home invasion shooting of a 58-year-old resident,” said Chief Inspector Scott Small.
“Based on information form that victim, he was upstairs in his home with his 61-year-old brother when he heard someone banging and forcing open the front door to his private residence,” said Small.
When the victim went downstairs to investigate he noticed that the intruder, “literally knocked the front door off its hinges,” Small said.
A struggle ensued and during that time at least three shots were fired. Winslow Brown resident was hit in the arm and stomach.
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The Brown brothers have lived on the block for years.
Brown, who served in the Vietnam War, was rushed to the hospital in critical but stable condition. He is expected to survive, Small said.
The victim didn’t get a good look at the intruder. Police said they would look at surveillance footage from a nearby middle school hoping that the intruder could be identified.
The reason for the attack wasn’t clear. It appears that nothing was taken from the home.
Willie Brown was left questioning why he and his brother were targeted.
"I don't even know why it happened, I ain't got nothing that nobody else in this neighborhood ain't got," Brown said. "I don't know what (he) wanted."
This wasn't the only shooting last night. A man in his 20s was killed in a hail of gunfire along the 800 block of Perkiomen Street in North Philly a little before midnight. More than 20 casings were found near the victim and a gun was found in a nearby park but no one was arrested, according to police.
