KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Burglars tried to force their way into a house in the 100 block of James Agee Street in the Fort Sanders neighborhood Monday night. Neighbors said they weren't surprised.
Knoxville Police said when two men came to the back door, the man who lived there pulled a gun and fired two shots in self defense.The motive for the attempted robbery isn't yet known.
Kristie Johnson, a mother who lives with her family a block away from where everything happened, said she's numb to the crime.
"I guess my reaction a lot of times is 'Oh great, here we go again,'" Johnson explained. "I'm not feeling real good they're trying to walk in and break in a house a block away."
Johnson has lived in the Fort for 23 years. When she heard about the attempted burglary turned shooting, she wasn't surprised.
"Our first reaction was, 'hmm I wonder what's going on and it's like oh they're fine, we'll just drive around the block,' and as we're driving it's like do you think we should be worried? Should we duck," Johnson questioned.
The attempted burglary turned shooting is part of a bigger crime story. An online crime map that compiles reported crimes from KPD shows everything from robberies, to theft, to carjackings.
Since the beginning of 2020, the area has seen around 20 crime reports. Starting six months from now, it bumps up to close to 200. In a complete year, there were close to 300 reports.
The main crime is theft across the board; but, it's the gunfire that worries Johnson for her three kids.
"It's not that you're not scared, you are scared," Johnson said. "I mean my son plays in the front yard basketball, and if someone's shooting, he could randomly get hit by a bullet."
She said the crime goes in cycles and she doesn't plan on packing up and leaving any time soon, she'll just stay alert. She admitted the Fort isn't as bad for crime as it was when she first moved in back in 1996.
"You can't live in fear every day and it's probably not gonna happen, but at the same time what bothers me is I don't know what's going on around here," Johnson explained.
Johnson said even though her family lives so close to UT, families and homeowners don't get alerts the campus police sends.
A lot of times, she disclosed, she doesn't know if her family's life is potentially in danger.
KPD is still investigating the Monday shooting.