Good Samaritan Shot Four Times

Carpet installer Gary Smith had never met the University City housewife who lived in a condominium next to where he was working. But, Wednesday morning, when Smith heard her screaming and running from her home, he rushed to her aid.

His good deed cost him dearly.

The 35-year-old San Diegan, described as a part-time law student and “a real decent guy,” raced after the man suspected of burglarizing the woman’s home.

For his efforts, Smith lay gravely injured in Scripps Memorial Hospital Wednesday night after two operations, suffering from four bullet wounds fired by the burglar as he ran from Smith.

“He’s in very critical condition, and he will probably remain that way for the rest of the night,” hospital spokeswoman Dilene Pulsipher said shortly after Smith came out of surgery at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Smith was shot once below the right eye, once in the abdomen and once each in his left arm and leg, said Michael Dabney, media coordinator at Scripps.

A team of three doctors operated on Smith for about six hours after the shooting, which occurred shortly after 9:30 a.m.

According to the woman’s husband, she returned to her home in the 7900 block of Camino Tranquilo from an errand when the gun-wielding burglar confronted her.

“My wife was just frozen solid for a minute or two,” the husband said.

The burglar fled, and the wife ran outside calling for help after she recovered from the shock, the husband said.

Smith heard the screams from the second-floor apartment where he was working, and he either jumped or ran down to confront the burglar, San Diego Police Officer Bob Chorney said.

Smith caught up with the fleeing man about a block away, and that’s when the shooting occurred, Chorney said.

“Supposedly, he had just been (carpeting) on the side and he was going to law school,” the officer said. “From everything I’ve heard, he was just a real decent guy.”

The husband said the thief had only escaped with “odds and ends.”

“We didn’t have much for them to take,” he said. “There was nothing of any great value. . . . I don’t think we were a very good place to rob.”

He described the crime rate in his neighborhood as “average.”

“I’ve been here 4 1/2 years, and I’ve never heard about anything like this,” he said. “Robbing is one thing, but to shoot someone over something like this . . . “

The wife declined to comment.

Police are still looking for the thief, described as white with a light complexion and long, thin brown hair. The man is about 22 years old, clean-shaven but with an unkempt appearance, is about 5-foot-9 and weighs 140 pounds, witnesses told police.

He was wearing a gray or blue Windbreaker and a pair of old jeans, Chorney said. The weapon was described as a .22-caliber handgun.

Chorney offered a mixed message to other people who might become involved in a violent encounter with criminals.

Smith may or may not have realized that the man he was chasing had a gun, Chorney said.

“It’s a good thing when people get involved in things, but we don’t know what information he had,” Chorney said. “Sometimes, people don’t realize the danger they’re getting into in those situations.

“Getting involved is a personal decision. But the world would be a better place if we had more Good Samaritans like him.”

When a group of neighborhood residents learned about the shooting, they began organizing a fund-raising drive to benefit Smith, spokeswoman Pulsipher said. The woman’s husband said he would contact the man who had helped his wife. “Definitely,” he said. “But we’ll do it privately.”