Tonight 43 year old Geovanni Berry is lucky to be alive after gunshots rained down in the house he was taking care of on Saturday morning. It happened in Burrell Boom village, where at about 1:00 am on Saturday morning someone broke into Chad Gillett's home and stole a licensed 9mm pistol. Gillett awoke to find the gun thief fleeing his home on bicycle. He pulled a shotgun and fired at the intruder, who seemed to have gotten sprayed by the shotgun pellets and fled on foot with the gun.
Gillett called the village police officer - and they rounded up a crew of armed friends from the village and they went out looking for the thief. Paint traces on the bicycle he abandoned led them to a house in the village - a house that was under construction.. The official story is that the police officer leading the crew identified herself and said they wanted to search the house. Now, this is at about 3:00 in the morning. No one responded and so one member of the crew - a civilian - reportedly went up to the house to look around - which is when a shot came from inside the house at him. Well, the rough and ready crew didn't need much after that, they let off on the residence with shotguns and 9 millimeter pistol spraying it with gunfire. Geovanni Berry was inside and he got shot in the jaw. He said even though it was pre-dawn hours, the posse shot first and asked questions later. Today in the hospital, he told the media his story:..
Geovanni Berry - Shooting Victim
"I was abruptly awaken by a loud bang at the back of the door; someone yelling 'we know that you are in there, we will come for you, get the "f" out.' After that I saw a lot of lights flashing, the were spotting trying to look inside the house - trying to peep in. The last thing I remembered was that one light flashed through the bathroon window straight at me in my face and thats when I heard the bang. Immediately knew that I got hit. I got hit straight through from the nose exited back out and I immediately decied to call 911 for assistance, but I was bleeding profusely I took about 3 tries in order to finally get through. During that time the barrage of firing started - they just start to open fire on the house, wrecklessly from all angle. So all I did was to stay low and remain calm. In this incident bleeding and everything - thats hard to do, but I remained calm and called 911 and after about 15-20 minutes the cops finally came and authorized me to come out of the house."
ASP Chris Noble - Rural Executive Officer
"The police in Burrel Boom was called out very early in the morning. Residents of the area who were affected by a burglary 
and other residents who assisted ended up a residence there and from what transpired we do know that persons with license firearms we believe fired their weapons and one person was injured. That gentleman was taken to the hospital, he is undergoing treatment. That investigation is still ongoing. We did manage to get statements in regards to it and it continues."
Geovanni Berry - Shooting Victim
"Through all that I heard it was 30-40 rounds that was fired and out of all of that I received just one single gunshot. I was very lucky."
ASP Chris Noble - Rural Executive Officer
"At this time we do know that bicycles that were recovered are being reported as stolen by the owners. So in essence there are two burglaries and two bicycles being stolen. We do believe that persons acted in consult to commit all the offences. However we do not believe that the person at the house may have played a role in that."
Berry has not given the police a statement, and no charges have been brought. He was discharged from the hospital today. Police have confiscated 6 weapons from the men who were accompanying the police officer.
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