Shootout with ninja-look-alike robber, resident wounded

It’s well after Halloween, nonetheless a Sherman Oaks, California, resident shot it out with a ninja-look-alike robber who broken into his home, police said.

The shooting occurred around 5 a.m. yesterday. The victim, Elijah Brown, told police that he was surprised by an intruder armed with a semiautomatic weapon and dressed in what looked like ninja garb. Brown said he was able to arm himself with a 9 mm handgun and exchanged gunfire with the masked man, said LAPD Officer Norma Eisenman. Going into great detail, Brown said:

"Some dude in a ski mask, looking like a ninja, came jumping through my window and pointed a gun and started shooting a gun at me ... There was no words, it was just I was going at him (and) he was going at me," Brown said.

"There was a dresser between us, and I was going 'boom, boom, boom, boom' from this side, and he was going 'bam, bam, bam' from that side, and there was holes all through the dresser."

Brown was treated at a local hospital for a minor flesh wound to his leg and released, police said. There was no report of the masked robber having been injured. Police couldn‘t pin down a precise motive, which they speculated could have been robbery. Police added the Sherman Oaks home is owned by a couple who now reside in San Francisco, and when they resided in the home police had responded several times to investigate alleged drug activities.