Woman shoots vehicle burglar to death in Arlington during fight over gun, police say

During a fight over her gun, a woman last week shot dead a man who had broken into her son’s vehicle in Arlington, police said on Wednesday.

Arlington police said the woman told them that on Aug. 11 the man burglarized the vehicle and she and her son confronted the suspect and tried to detain him.

A physical altercation erupted, and the woman and the suspect fought over her handgun.

One of them fired the gun in the air once, and the woman shot the suspect in self-defense, according to her statement, police said.

Christopher Cruz, 34, was fired upon about 12:45 a.m. Police said he was lying on the ground at George Stevens Park, a city park in the 500 block of Echols Street, when they arrived. Cruz died about nine hours later at a hospital of a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Police on Wednesday said the woman has not been arrested.