We’ve chronicled many times before how bad guys with knives, axes and other weapons that are less effective than firearms have come out on the wrong end of illegal encounters. But this is the first time I can remember reporting on a home invasion where the intruder carried a screwdriver.
Repeat Chicago criminal Shelby Hurd was a product of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s early parole programs. Like many such criminals, however, Hurd decided that rather than going straight after receiving that break, he’d bust into a home and steal whatever he wanted. After all, he’d done it before and was still on the street.
That’s exactly what Hurd did on the night of August 15 in Joliet, Illinois. Late that night, the 36-year-old Hurd broke into the home. As it turns out, that would be the last crime Hurd would ever commit, since an armed homeowner ensured that Hurd didn’t leave the home alive.
According to police reports, a woman and her infant child were at home alone when Hurd, armed with a screwdriver, broke in. Hearing the home invader, the woman took her baby and retreated to the safety of an upstairs closet.
“A preliminary investigation indicates the victim and her child hid in a bedroom closet, and she armed herself after hearing someone forcibly enter the home,” Joliet Police Sgt. Dwayne English told shawlocal.com.
When Hurd, armed with the screwdriver, came upstairs where the woman and baby were hiding, the heroic mother shot the home intruder. Officers responding to a call found Hurd on the second floor of the residence, dead from a gunshot wound. A woman, still with the gun in her hand, and her infant child were found in an adjacent bedroom.
“The information we have, and the evidence found at the scene, indicates that Hurd was at the home to commit a burglary,” English said. “What his motive was beyond that and why he chose this residence is still under investigation.
“The suspect was wearing gloves and in possession of a screwdriver at the time of the incident. The suspect was not known to the victim.”
While this was apparently his first time having a run-in with an armed citizen, Hurd was no stranger to the Illinois “justice” system. According to Will County court records, Hurd was convicted of committing burglaries in 2022 in Tinley Park and in 2023 in Frankfort. And according to the Illinois Department of Corrections, he had also been convicted of burglary and identity theft in Cook County.
Hurd had just received early parole, getting him out of jail and back on the streets, only six months before the break-in. Had Hurd killed the residents rather than being killed by them, there’s little doubt Gov. Pritzker and other anti-gun Democrats would have blamed something other than the criminal for his actions.
