Jennifer Edwards Baker

jbaker@enquirer.com

A homeowner shot at an intruder in an overnight residential burglary in Woodlawn, police said early Friday.

Mark Montgomery, 42, was not hit when Phil Smith fired one warning shot just below a front window as Montgomery broke into 86 Riddle Road about 2:47 a.m., police said.

Montgomery ran off and was apprehended a short distance away in the parking lot at Glenwood Gardens.

He could be charged with one count of burglary, said Detective Donald Fourth Jr. His arraignment is scheduled for Saturday morning.

Smith and his family were not hurt, although court documents indicate blood was recovered from outside the residence.

Smith's wife and daughter were sitting at the kitchen table of their white farmhouse built in the 1800s, drinking hot herbal tea "because we are night owls," Mary Smith, 63, said, when someone started pounding on the window and shouting.

"It gave us the impression he was trying to get in and get away from something," she said.

Then Montgomery smashed out the front window, police said, likely with a bench on the front porch.

Smith's daughter, Martha, ran upstairs to wake her father, a scientist at Procter & Gamble. He has a .375 Magnum revolver.

"He was already getting his gun out of the closet," Martha Smith, 26, said. "I went into my room, locked the door and called 911 from under my desk."

She told a dispatcher: "Somebody is breaking into my house. I don't know what is going on," according to a recording of the call.

"While I was on the phone with the dispatcher, I heard one gunshot. It was terrifying," she said. "The person pounding on the window had been shouting the whole time, "Help me!" but then bolted for the road."

Mary Smith said her husband came downstairs and, not knowing if the man was armed with a weapon, yelled for the intruder to stop. At that point, the man was halfway through the window, so Phil Smith squeezed off one round.

He aimed just below the window in a deliberate effort not to hit the man, Mary Smith said.

The bullet struck a paper shredder and then embedded into the wood floor beneath the window.

The family was still reeling as they swept broken glass in their living room early Friday. They said they were relieved no one was hurt.

"Luckily we are all OK. It's terrifying," Martha Smith said. "We're all still full of adrenaline. I don't think anybody is sleeping much more tonight."

Phil Smith said he was too shaken to talk about his experience and needed to lie down.