WICHITA, Kan. The early-Tuesday-morning shooting that left a suspected intruder dead and an off-duty officer wounded in his home has area residents double-checking security. One woman who lives down the street from the officer's home near 21st and Maize Road says she has security cameras on her house, but she says they didn't catch anything leading up to the shooting. Other neighbors say previously, there were some vehicle break-ins in their neighborhood. Police believe the suspect, identified as 24-year-old Christian Webb, was also involved in the break-ins. Neighbors of the off-duty officer injured in the reported home invasion say area crime isn't surprising, although they say their neighborhood is safe. They say the suspect intruded into the wrong house early Tuesday morning. "They basically didn't pick the right house that they broke into," one neighbor says. "So if it was going to happen, thank goodness it was a police officer that had a weapon that can protect himself and his family." Besides the break-ins in which police believe Webb was involved, they say the neighborhood has dealt with theft before. A Wichita Police crime-mapping website showing data of crimes in the city shows dozens of crimes in the area near the southwest corner of 21st and Maize Road. About one dozen of these crimes closer to the officer's home, involve theft. So far in 2018, a nearby shopping center has seen two burglaries and a larceny from a vehicle. Just south of the shopping center there's a larceny report form a church. Heading south a bit more to Westport Street, there's a reported car theft and loss of property. These cases do not include the officer's street where there are reports of four larcenies from a vehicle, a home burglary and a report of lost property. There is no specific date listed for when these crimes happened, but as for the time, we know it's often been in the evening or late-night hours Officers say they don't know if the early-Tuesday-morning home intrusion that led to the shooting was a targeted incident or if it was random. While police mentioned the thefts near the officer's home this year, they say they don't know if the shooting has anything to do with the other crimes nearby. Comparing data to the first six months of 2018 shows there's been significantly more cases this year in the area of 21st and Maize Road. Data from 2017 shows only three cases of some sort of theft in the same area, compared to the dozen in 2018. In response to the reported home intrusion and shooting, police surrounded a car for hours Tuesday morning, collecting fingerprints. Several in the neighborhood say they don't know who the car belongs to, but they have not seen it before. One woman does say she believes she saw the car in the days leading up to Tuesday. Police have not said what connection the car might have to the case.
www.kwch.com
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