Fresno homeowner hit with bat, homeless man shot

Police are sorting through a series of convoluted events that culminated in the shooting of a homeless man after an assault on a homeowner Wednesday morning in central Fresno.

The incident took place about 10 a.m. in the 3600 block of North Thesta Avenue, near Fresno Street and Dakota Avenue.

Lt. Joe Gomez said a homeowner who allowed the homeless man to stay at his house came to the residence to find that his guest had broken into a shed. That led to an altercation in which the homeowner was struck over the head with a wrench and a baseball bat.

The homeowner fled the attacker by jumping over a fence and going into the front of his house. The homeless man also went over the fence, ending up in another home’s backyard, where he was shot multiple times in the torso.

The homeowner’s head was “cracked open” during the attack and he suffered injuries to his fingers consistent with defensive wounds from being hit with the wrench, Gomez said.

Gomez said the two men were acquainted for about 10 years and the homeless man had been “down on his luck.”

Police questioned the homeowner in connection with the shooting, but he claimed he didn’t know how the man ended up getting shot because he’d already fled back into the house when the shooting occurred.

The homeless man was out of surgery by 3 p.m. and remained in critical but stable condition, Gomez said.

The details of the incident are still unclear, Gomez said. The identities of the men involved were not released.

This story was originally published April 13, 2016 at 12:32 PM with the headline "Fresno homeowner hit with bat, homeless man shot."