Man Shoots Intruder During Attempted Break In

By Craig Day, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- A Tulsa homeowner fights to protect his family.  He says a man full of rage tried to break through his front door in the middle of the night, and threatened to kill him, giving the homeowner no choice but to shoot.

The alleged intruder is now in jail and facing charges after a hospital visit.

Steve Manning spent Friday cleaning up after the scariest night of his life:  a night when he and his wife were awakened by someone trying to violently bust through their front door.

"He would reel back and come in straight armed and boom.  And, if brick walls could shake, they were shaking," said Tulsan Steve Manning.

Manning says he has never in his life seen such rage.  He says despite his pleas for the intruder to stop and even after warning him that he had a gun, the man was intent on getting inside.

"I was screaming you have the wrong house.  You have the wrong house.  And of course, that doubled his efforts.  He went wild," said Tulsan Steve Manning.

When the door frame splintered, Manning fired a warning shot toward the intruder's feet.

When he kept coming, Manning fired another shot, hitting 21 year-old Robert Wickham in the leg.

"I just don't want to shoot anybody.  This is a horrible thing.   But, I'm certainly not going to let somebody in my house with that much rage," said Tulsan Steve Manning.

After he was shot, Wickham then fought with officers in Manning's front flower bed.  Wickham was arrested for burglary, public intoxication, and resisting arrest.

"Never, ever in my entire life thought I would pick up a gun and have to defend my family and my house from somebody," said Tulsan Steve Manning.

In addition to charges and a gunshot wound for Wickham, the whole situation left Manning shocked, unnerved and wondering why it had to happen.

"It was the first time in my life that I ever felt the kind of fear that I thought that I would be seriously hurt or die," said Tulsan Steve Manning.

Tulsa Police will forward their case to the district attorney for routine review. 

Oklahoma law allows people to defend themselves if someone breaks into their home and they fear for their life or someone else's.