Deadly confrontation: Alberta man explains what happened when he shot an intruder to death

CALGARY -

An Alberta man says he was beaten with a baseball bat before he fatally shot an intruder who had broken into his home in Red Deer County over the August long weekend.

“It’s pretty tough…I don't wish this on anybody. If I would have know that he was in the house I would never have gone in the house in a million years. I would have just waited out front and called police again,” said the Penhold resident.

CTV has agreed to not identify the man.

He said the victim is not known to the family but was told he previously lived at the property or worked for the previous owner.

The man said the intruder repeatedly tried to break in over the long weekend while he was on vacation with his wife, but his children ages 13 and 17 were home during two of the break-in attempts.

He said police were called and told the man to stay away.

He added that the whole family was away but then returned Monday afternoon to find the gate open. Screens were pulled off the house and the family's quad was moved.

The windows were still locked but he grabbed his shotgun and went into the house to investigate and told his family to wait in their motorhome.

His 13-year-old daughter captured the chaos of the final moments of the encounter on her cell phone.

“I walked down to the end of the hall and I got there, there’s someone laying in our bed and I immediately started shouting at him to get down on the floor, get down on the floor and then he kind of went down and then he came at me and tussled a bit and I pushed back.”

The man said he tried to get out of the house but the intruder hit him multiple times with a baseball bat before he shot him.

“He was like two and a half feet from me when I fired and then it was over.”

RCMP say charges are not being laid at this time.

“However the investigation is not concluded yet,” said Cpl. Susan Richter, Alberta RCMP.

The man said the hardest part is knowing the victim also had a 13-year-old daughter who is now without her father.

“It could have been my 13-year-old daughter that lost her dad so I’m really having a rough time with that.”

The distraught man said he wishes things would have turned out a lot differently.

“I am going to be purchasing pepper spray because if I had gone in with a big can of pepper spray, he would be alive, I wouldn’t be hurt….the situation wouldn’t have gone to where it did.”

He said his knuckle was crushed and he has to undergo surgery. He also can’t hear out of one ear, has stitches and bruises to his head and bruises on his back.

He praised the RCMP's handling of the case for their professionalism in the way they handled the incident.