Surveillance cameras capture man gunned down trying to stop men from getting into car in his driveway

HOUSTON - A man trying to save a car from being stolen ends up losing his life. Around 1:45 a.m. the man was inside his home and saw on his surveillance camera several men in the driveway trying to get into his girlfriend’s car. He went outside to try and stop them.

"I heard the gunshots. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, five times the shots went out, and I began to pray, oh God," says 79-year-old neighbor Carmen.

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With residents taking cover inside, a number of home cameras captured the deadly encounter outside in the southwest Houston neighborhood as a 30-year-old man, barefoot, and in sleep shorts left his home there on Beechaven to stop the men from getting into a car in his driveway. 

He exchanged gunfire with them and was gunned down with his girlfriend and three kids inside the house. 

"Just hearing the family crying, I didn’t like to hear it and just seeing the body wasn’t good," says a 15-year-old neighbor who's so shaken she stayed home from school.

The men are seen on several surveillance systems. Seconds before the shooting as they pass a home camera one says, "You can see us." After the shots rang out they are yelling at one another and running. It sounds like one says "Tre’.  What the (expletive)? What you do?"

"It is very frightening," adds the 79-year-old neighbor who has lived here since 1975. "We are the originals in my neighborhood and drugs have just taken over." 

Detectives say the men drove into the neighborhood in a silver sedan and walked around, pulling on car door handles. They ended up running away and leaving the car, which has Louisiana license plates. But even as dogs are barking, and their victim lay dying on the ground, home surveillance video captures a couple of them standing around, perhaps deciding whether to go back and get the car.

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Investigators say if you see something or someone suspicious on your home camera, "Call 911 and remain safe inside. I know it’s tempting to want to go outside and become involved, but sometimes it can have some very negative consequences just like it did here," says Sgt. Matthew Brady with the Houston Police Department Homicide Unit. 

If you know who the men are, you're asked to call Houston police.