A 69-year-old Army Veteran who decided to assist a young man asking for help at his front door was fatally shot when he let the man into his home.
Thomas Sonnenberg of Minneapolis let Devon Parker into the house after Parker said he was being pursued by assailants with a baseball bat. He was frantic, paranoid and in some sort of distress, asking for a gun, knife, hat and gloves. Shortly after, he shot the retiree in the head with his own gun.
Moments before he was shot to death, Sonnenberg had called the police. They arrived to find his dead body in the living room and according to authorities, he may have saved his wife from a similar fate.
According to the Daily Mail:
Thomas Sonnenberg was shot shortly after he called 911, but Parker was unaware his wife was in the kitchen – she emerged after the gun discharged, said cops.
“When the murderer found out she was here, he threw her around and choked her, and he was going to rape her,” Raina Baldwin, the couple’s daughter, told Mail Online.
The front door locked behind Parker when he entered the house. When Parker realized, he threatened Elaine Sonnenberg to force her to give him the keys, says Baldwin.
Police banging on the door received no response, but saw Thomas Sonnenberg’s body slumped over a chair in the living room and began furiously beating the door.
An officer saw Parker come up behind Elaine Sonnenberg just as she screamed that she could not unlock the door.
The suspect was ordered to the ground at gunpoint while Elaine Sonnenberg ran to unlock the door. Parker was immediately arrested.
Police observed Thomas Sonnenberg’s right hip gun holster empty, and later found a gun stashed under a bed in an upstairs bedroom.
Parker was on probation stemming from a 2011 felony assault conviction. He remains in jail pending a Tuesday court appearance.
Our prayers go out to the Sonnenberg family during this difficult time.
SOURCE: Daily Mail | PHOTO CREDIT: Police Department, Facebook
