Two North Braddock, PA, police officers were shot in the chest and saved by their body armor Tuesday when they responded to a possible kidnapping call.
A man accused of shooting the officers told investigators he fired because he thought the officers were burglars, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. told TribLive.
Dejon Howard, 20, fired blindly through a closed front door of a vacant house in North Braddock that he was occupying without permission, Zappala said.
"They were shot in the body armor that they fortunately were wearing last night," Zappala said of the officers who have not been identified. "The guy who shot them has confessed to shooting them. His rationale was he thought somebody was breaking into this abandoned house, which he has no right to be there anyway."
Police went to the house around 10:45 p.m. after a woman told them that two of her teenage sons were possibly being held hostage there in connection with stolen drugs and money.
