West End homeowner recounts confronting intruder
Jeremy Cox said he used to act like “a tough guy,” when it came to home invasion, saying he’d do whatever it took to keep himself safe.
But after a man broke into Cox’s home on Sterling Avenue on Wednesday evening, Aug. 30, he said he couldn’t kill him.
He shot Nathan Harvey, 43, of Butler, in the waist, after warning him multiple times to leave the residence. Harvey suffered a grazing gunshot wound to his abdomen, according to police reports.
“I made a decision, completely, totally opposite of what I had always said,” Cox said. “I didn’t want to kill him.”
Cox told the Butler Eagle on Friday, Sept. 1, that he and his girlfriend had just finished ordering pizza Wednesday night when they heard banging and scraping noises in the basement.
“I thought there was an animal in the basement,” he said.
After checking on their own animals, Cox said he grabbed his handgun and went to investigate. Near the basement door, he saw a man with a bottle of alcohol.
The man was later identified as Harvey by police, and he was wanted by the Butler County Sheriff’s office.
Cox said Harvey acknowledged him, but ignored every instruction.
“I said, ‘I need you to leave my house, I need you to go, let me see your hands,’” Cox said. “He said, ‘The cops are after me, you have to hide me.’”
Cox’s girlfriend had called the police who were on their way, so Cox instructed Harvey to put his hands on a nearby washing machine.
“He smelled like alcohol … I don’t think he knew where he was or what was going on,” he said. “I asked him to leave; he said he wasn’t leaving, and he took a step toward me.”
Cox warned Harvey multiple times that he had a gun, and wasn’t sure if Harvey was armed.
“I fired a shot to warn him, hoping it’d scare him, hoping he’d get the point,” Cox said. “Then, he stepped toward me again, and I stepped back. I didn’t want to just shoot him.”
Lots of things were running through his head, according to Cox.
“I can’t kill this guy; I don’t know what’s going on … if he had kids, people loving on him, trying to help him,” he said. “I didn’t want to kill him, so I shot his waist.”
Harvey went down, and tried to get back up, so Cox said he kicked him.
“He said if I was going to kick him to just shoot him again,” Cox said.
Police arrived around 5 p.m. and took control of the situation. Harvey was treated by Butler Ambulance Service and taken to Butler Memorial Hospital for a grazing gunshot wound to his abdomen, police said.
Though he didn’t know Harvey, Cox said the situation was a lot to wrap his head around.
“It’s hard for me to digest … he’s a struggling man … but that’s a human being,” he said. “I’m not fine. I’m not good. I’m trying to process all of this.”
Having lost his job recently, Cox said he was grateful he was home during the invasion. If he’d been at work, his girlfriend would have been alone.
“It’s almost like I was meant to be there,” he said.
He added until the day of the home invasion, it had been 15 years since he fired a gun.
“I always tell my kids, it’s better to have one and never need it,” he said.
