Teen Killed During Break-In Appears Burglary Underway; Prosecutors Weigh Level Of Force

Before he went out for the night, 13-year-old Travis Duncan wrote a note addressed to “Mom or Dad” and posted it on a wall in his room.

“I just need some time away from everybody so I went out for a little while,” the note read. “Mom, you know what I’m talking about, cause I told you while we were in Safeway. Love, Travis. P.S. I’m not running away. I’ll be back later.”

Travis never returned.

He was shot dead shortly before 1 a.m. Thursday while breaking into a house about a mile away from his Summit home, Pierce County sheriff’s deputies said.

Detectives had found a bicycle and a flashlight that was turned on near the side gate to the property. Track marks in the wet grass indicated a second prowler, sheriff’s spokesman Curt Benson said.

On Friday, a 14-year-old boy, who is the son of the homeowner’s girlfriend, turned himself in and was taken to a juvenile detention hall on suspicion of burglary, Benson said.

The boy gave police a statement indicating his involvement in the burglary.

“He did admit being inside the house,” Benson said. “He made it out of the house before his friend.”

Benson said the 14-year-old went home, changed his clothes and stayed with a friend until a relative got in touch with him and brought him to the police.

Benson declined to offer a motive for the break-in.

Prosecutors will decide whether to file charges against Ed McCue, 47, the homeowner.

“You have the right to defend your home,” Benson said. “The prosecutor is going to have to look at the case and determine whether that’s what was taking place here and what level of force was necessary to do that.”

Mike Johnson, assistant chief deputy prosecutor, said he could not comment on the shooting.

Prosecutors rarely file criminal charges against people who have shot burglars inside their homes - even when they are shot from behind. Legal scholars say homeowners have the right both to defend themselves and to shoot fleeing suspects.

McCue, a Pierce Transit driver, declined requests for an interview.

He told deputies he awoke to what sounded like crows on the roof. Then he got a 12-gauge shotgun from his closet when he realized someone was in his home.

Suddenly, a head popped around the corner. The homeowner heard the intruder utter a surprised profanity and saw him turn and run back into the smaller bedroom from which he had emerged.

The homeowner followed and, as the intruder reached the window he had earlier pried open, fired a single blast. It hit Duncan - a seventh-grader at Ford Middle School with no criminal record - in the right buttock, propelling him out the window and onto the pavement, Benson said.

He was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, where he was pronounced dead.

Travis Duncan’s mother, Tammy Duncan, said she didn’t bear a grudge against the man who killed her son.