The homeowner broke down sobbing as his family held him.
"I really didn't want have to do this," the homeowner told Eyewitness News as he was shaking in tears.
He said he and his family are afraid, and traumatized.
Police say it was around 11 p.m. Sunday when a man was trying to kick open the front door to their home Garibaldi Avenue and tried to break in using a spear-type object, a handheld harpoon.
Lodi Police say 33-year-old Amr Ali, a basement tenant of the home, was trying to smash his way in.
Investigators say the 62-year-old homeowner and family members confronted Ali.
Police say the homeowner ultimately fired three shots, striking Ali once.
He was rushed to Hackensack University Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
The homeowner says the suspect had only recently started renting from him. He said he never had any issues with the tenant, had no arguments and no run-ins, and barely even knew him.
The homeowner says he didn't even realize who he was at the time. The suspect never said a word during the incident.
On top of how this confrontation ended, the homeowner and his family still don't know why this happened.
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