House painter Byron Castillo was sent to repair and repaint an apartment damaged by leaking water. He was shot in the chest by the resident after trying to open the front door.
Byron Castillo was just trying to do his job when he arrived at a second-floor apartment in North Carolina to repair and repaint a kitchen damaged by water leaks. The tenant inside shot him in the chest and told police he thought the man was trying to break into his home.
The house painter was critically wounded and has joined the growing list of people shot for going to the wrong door.
Castillo later learned he should have been sent to a first-floor unit at the sprawling apartment complex.
Still, he doesn't understand why he was shot. He was armed with a paint roller and a brush, he said.
"I was doing maintenance with this," he told Inside Edition. "And how am I going to kill someone with this? And he just got a gun and (shot) me with no mercy."
Prosecutors declined to file charges against the tenant, saying he believed Castillo was a burglar.
Castillo's wife still remembers her shock at seeing her wounded husband.
"I saw blood all around his shirt I started screaming. My children started screaming," she told Inside Edition.
Across the country, authorities are struggling to deal with an increasing number of shootings involving people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
One of the most notable shootings occurred in Kansas City, where Andrew Lester, an 84-year-old white homeowner, twice shot Black teen Ralph Yarl, who had gone to the wrong house to pick up his younger brothers.
Lester was charged last week with assault and armed criminal action. He pleaded not guilty and was released on $200,000 bail. The prosecutor said there was a “racial component” to the shooting, but did not elaborate.
Former Vice President Mike Pence spoke about the shootings during an appearance Sunday on "Face the Nation."
"This recent spate of tragedies is evidence of the fear so many Americans are feeling about the crime wave besetting this country," he said.
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