AZ Daily Star

Retired AF colonel fought, killed robber

A.E. Araiza / Staff Retired Air Force Lt. Col. William McCracken outside his garage, where he found an armed intruder Sunday night.

By M. Scot Skinner ARIZONA DAILY STAR

William Lowell McCracken didn't want to kill anyone on Sunday night.

All he wanted, in fact, was a nice spot outside his house to have a smoke and watch the rain fall on his neighborhood near North Campbell Avenue and East Prince Road.

But his plans for a quiet evening ended with a violent struggle in his garage that left an intruder dead with gunshot wounds.

The retired Air Force pilot said that when he walked from his kitchen into the dark garage at about 8 p.m., he saw the outline of a tall man. McCracken, 58, yelled at the man to get out.

"That's when I noticed he had a pistol,'' McCracken said.

The would-be robber, who wore surgical gloves and had a police scanner on him, told McCracken that they were going to go inside and "get the money.''

But McCracken, a grandfather, said he knew instinctively that he couldn't let the man near his fiancee and his future mother-in-law.

The women heard a scuffle in the garage and tried to call 911, but the intruder had already cut the telephone line.

The man repeated his demands to go in the house, and he started to count.

"One. . . .''

Before he got to "two," McCracken grabbed the barrel of the .38-caliber handgun and shoved it toward the ceiling.

"I had the gun with both hands and it was a wrestling match then,'' McCracken said.

During the struggle, the stranger repeatedly jabbed McCracken with a stun device, leaving red marks on his face.

McCracken managed to grab the stun gun with his teeth.

"I was biting on it like a snapping turtle, and he's hitting me," he said.

That's when the gun fired and the intruder fell back a bit.

"He released the gun, and then I could see him coming back at me,'' McCracken said. "I discharged the pistol, he staggered and then fell to the concrete.''

It was all over within a minute.

Tucson police have not released the dead man's name, pending notification of his family.

McCracken, who is not expected to face any criminal charges for his actions, was treated at a hospital for a gash on his head. He was back at home in a few hours.

"I rested, but I didn't sleep because it all just kept playing in my head,'' he said quietly as he sat on his back patio. "It will be with me forever.''

The intruder got into the garage because McCracken had taken out the trash 30 minutes earlier and didn't close the garage door.

The intruder unplugged the garage-door opener and was removing the light bulbs when he was confronted.

McCracken, a management consultant, is a Texas native who moved to Tucson four months ago.

"I'm not an aggressive person, and I don't look for trouble,'' he said. "If someone is tailgating me, I just pull over and let them pass. I always walk away from a fight.''

Although he saved his fiancee and her mother from possible harm, he said, "I'm just a guy that reacted, not a hero."

This "negative event,'' as he described it, was a wake-up call for him and his family, he said.

"Just like our nation right now, I am taking extra care to be safe. And I plan to keep the garage door closed.''

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Answers

If the gun is clean, then they should let him keep it.

Way to go, William!

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001