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'He wasn't nothing but 22 years old' | Man shoots home intruder with suspect's gun on Indy's far east side

Brent Smith said a man forced himself into his home Tuesday night, leading to a struggle that ended in gunfire.

INDIANAPOLIS — An attempted armed robbery turned deadly on Marseille Road, near 38th Street and Post Road, Tuesday night.

"I don't know what would have happened to me if he had gotten the gun. I just don't. I just know what transpired and what the end result was," said Brent Smith, the homeowner.

Wednesday, the daylight exposed the damage done after Smith said dozens of shots were fired at his home.

Smith said just before the gunfire erupted, he saw someone approaching his home on his Ring doorbell. When he went to see who it was, the man attacked him.

"I can't remember if I had my hand on the door and went to pick the dog up with just one hand or I may have let the door go, but by the time I'm walking with the dog, he done followed me into my home and hit me in the head with his gun," Smith said.

RELATED: IMPD: 22-year-old man fatally shot by homeowner during alleged break-in on Indy's far east side

It was then, Smith said, he and the man got into a scuffle inside his home, breaking Smith's table and knocking the gun free from the suspect's hand.

"Once he had got up off me, when we were wrestling, I had turned and just fired the gun. He jumps and comes outside, and then the gunfire started," Smith said.

Smith said two other people fired dozens of shots into his home from the street, shattering an SUV's windows and leaving holes in the siding of Smith's home.

Credit: WTHR
The windows of an SUV were shot out by gunfire on Marseille Road Tuesday night.

"His buddies were shooting so many times, man, and I was shooting back with his gun. Then, I ran out of bullets with his gun, and then, I just went and grabbed my gun and firing it, and that's when basically, I don't know if they ... I ran out of bullets in that gun, and then, they drove off," Smith said.

Outside Smith's front door, IMPD found 22-year-old Damon Swanigan Jr. shot to death.

"He wasn't nothing but 22 years old. That's what f---s me up the most," Smith said as he began to get choked up.

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