‘Vigilante’ May Be Charged in Killing

A grand jury was asked Friday to indict a copy-machine repairmen who witnessed a murder and then shot the killer to death with a laser-guided handgun.

Police later questioned but did not charge Todd Alan Broom, 25, who admitted firing at a car racing away from the scene of a murder on Monday.

At a news conference at the offices of his attorney, Broom told reporters he does not consider himself a hero or a vigilante and regrets having been at the scene.

“I don’t consider myself any sort of hero,” Broom said. “Those are words used by other people. At this point . . . I regret that I went to the mall that day.”

Broom said he was sitting in his car waiting for a parking space at a shopping mall when he looked in his rear-view mirror and saw a man shoot a woman in the head as she tried to run from the assailant. She was then shot at point-blank range, he said.

Broom said he grabbed a loaded handgun from a holster on his front seat and got out of his car, shouting for the assailant, who was later identified as a former boyfriend of the woman, to stop.

Broom fired one shot at the escaping vehicle and followed the car a short distance. He fired a second shot and saw the car crash into a signpost with its driver slumped over the steering wheel.