St. Louis teen honored by police after confronting burglar in terrifying home invasion

By Caroline Hecker

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    SHREWSBURY, Missouri (KMOV) — A Shrewsbury teenager is being hailed a hero after confronting an armed intruder inside his home in the early morning hours of July 8.

Chas Summers, 14, said he was playing video games in his family’s den shortly after midnight when he heard a sound in the hallway.

“So I got up and came to the door and saw a man standing with a gun in my doorway,” he said. “He had the gun pointed straight out in front of him like he was about to come in and shoot me.”

He said his instincts kicked in, instantly slamming the door to the den in the intruder’s face and screaming for his parents to wake up.

About to fall asleep upstairs, his parents had no idea what was going on.

“I heard the door slam, and I shot right up,” Tonya Summers said. “Then I heard screaming and so I looked at my husband and said, ‘something is wrong with Chas.'”

The two got up and rushed downstairs.

“As we were running down the stairs we could hear he was saying, ‘don’t come down here, there’s a man with a gun in our house.’ He was screaming at the top of his lungs.”

Summers said he was already on the phone with 911 dispatchers, letting them know what was going on. His parents said it was unclear at first whether the intruder was inside their home or had fled outside.

“We were asking him to explain it and he said, ‘no, there is a man inside our house and you are in danger!'” Tonya Summers said.

The family quickly discovered the intruder was gone, along with the family’s car. A search outside of the home turned up nothing before police arrived.

“We just don’t understand because our lights were on, he was awake, we have dogs…we don’t know why we were targeted,” Tonya Summers said.

Shrewsbury Police confirmed the incident happened on July 8. Because it’s an ongoing investigation, officials told News 4 they were unable to release information on the suspect or suspects in the case.

On Tuesday night, the police department awarded Summers with a “Certificate of Recognition” for his efforts that night, preventing further injury or harm to his family.

A quiet, non-confrontational guy, Summers said he was surprised.

“I never thought I’d get an award like this,” he said. ‘I’m not really a brave person, I just went into auto-pilot mode.”

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