On Sunday, State Rep. Borris Miles shot one of two apparent thieves at his under-construction mansion on MacGregor and Scott. We’ve been hesitant to comment on the news, as the story seemed still to be “evolving” (as the newsies like to say) yesterday. Today, the Chronicle ran this fairly comprehensive account from reporters Kevin Moran and Kristen Mack:
A Pasadena man who was shot and wounded Sunday by State Rep. Borris Miles at his Third Ward home under construction is in custody.
Bruce Anthony Toler, 55, was charged Monday with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. He remains at the Harris County Jail with bail set at $30,000.
Miles found water problems about 6:15 p.m. when he stopped by the construction site in the 3700 block of South MacGregor Way. He left to change clothes, then returned about two hours later to clean up the water, said Donald Fields, the representative’s spokesman.
While upstairs, Miles heard noises and went downstairs to investigate, a Houston Police Department spokesman said. Fields said Miles saw two men cutting and stripping pipes in an attempt to steal the copper.
“He (Miles) yelled at them and one threw a small pocketknife,” HPD spokesman Victor Senties said. Miles pulled his pistol and shot the man in the lower left leg, Senties said.
What a bizarre story. Various accounts (KTRK-13, KHOU-11, KPRC-2, earlier Chron, AP, Miles press release via Isiah Carey) had Miles heading to his under-construction property to do plumbing (odd, but maybe he’s just really emotionally attached to his huge new mansion and doesn’t trust his contractors to get things right), had the thieves after copper wire or after copper pipes that they were “stripping” (whatever that means), had Miles leaving and returning to the property (but NOT, as his spokesman said, to “leave and retrieve a gun”), only to be surprised by a pocketknife-throwing bad guy (Houston Mutant Ninja Copper Thieves, anyone?). Definitely an odd tale.
But hey, in Texas, a man’s home is his castle (literally a castle, in this case!), so probably not many people are going to question if Miles followed the relevant laws to the letter in this instance (or instead went looking for trouble to teach a lesson). And the state representative had the good sense not to issue a press release along the lines of, “Everyone knows HPD is too short on manpower to deal with these sorts of problems, so I decided to deter future thieves by breaking out a little whoop-ass.” That wouldn’t be politically prudent.
Even so, that was sort of the message conveyed. We hope it will deter any other members of the Houston Mutant Ninja Copper Thieves! Let them move on to Dallas.
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