ONTARIO >> It was Arthur Corral’s 19-year-old daughter who alerted him to strange noises, a call for help that ended in a shooting early Tuesday morning.

Just after midnight, Ivonne Corral told her dad she heard some noises inside their home, on a cul-de-sac in Ontario.

“She tried to investigate, came back, and said she heard something,” said Corral, 41, who lives with his wife, Sandra Cortez, 38, and five children. “I got up, and grabbed my gun. I proceeded to her room, and we encountered the gentleman in the room.

“And everything just went downhill from there.”

• Video: Ontario homeowner speaks

Corral said the man appeared to be unstable. He was talking to himself “in different tones of voices” and had mentioned God.

Initial dispatch reports indicate the person, identified later by police as Jose Andres Alfaro Chavez, had broken into the house in the 1800 block of North Parkside Court and may have been shot more than once by a resident of the home.

Chavez allegedly made a move toward the resident and that’s when he was shot, authorities said.

“I warned him to stay where he was at, and he didn’t listen,” Corral said.

Ontario police Cpl. Fred Alvarez said detectives “did find evidence that the back door had been forced open.”

Chavez was taken to Arrowhead Medical Center and had undergone surgery Tuesday morning. His condition is not known, but Alvarez said the man is alive.

The residents of the home are cooperating with the investigation, said Lt. Pat Birkett.

Corral said he shot the intruder three times, but could not recall exactly where.

“If we didn’t have the right to bear arms, this would have been a different story,” Corral said. “We could have all been slaughtered. Who knows, you know? The worst could have happened.”

Monica Jimenez, 48, who lives next door to Corral and his family, said she was shocked to learn of the break-in and said she believed the shooting was justified.

“If they didn’t find him … they could have all went to sleep,” Jimenez said. “Who knows what he could have done to the kids and to them.”

Doris Yette, 75, who lives on Raymond Street, across the street from the end of the Parkside cul-de-sac, said in her 40 years living there, the neighborhood had been “fairly quiet.”

“I don’t approve of anybody’s home broken into,” Yette said. “I’m glad he shot him.”

The incident remains under investigation.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been edited to correct the name of the resident’s daughter.

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