Cary man charged with assault after shooting man he found inside his car

According to police, Heng Ye, 51, found the man inside his vehicle around 3:30 in the morning and fired on him when the man tried to run. Police, responding to the report of a car break-in, arrested Ye, charging him with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.

The shooting happened on Matilda Place, near the intersection of Evans Road and NW Maynard Road.

Police did not release the identity of the man who was shot. Investigators said the man was running away when he was shot, and he was taken to the hospital with serious injuries.

Ye was being held at the Wake Detention Center on $30,000 bond, but was no longer listed in jail by 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Neighbors say they were startled to hear gunshots.

"I've never heard gunshots," said neighbor Goutam Chintakula. "It's very scary for us. It's a pretty quiet community, and we really like living here. When I heard that, we were really scared."

"When we awoke this morning, police everywhere, helicopters in the sky, we didn't know what had happened," Jason Aber said.

Neighbors told WRAL News there have been some recent car break-ins in the surrounding communities, and they were wondering if there’s any connection to Tuesday's shooting.

Anuj Jain, who looked in his RING camera and saw police officers in his backyard, said, "I was really, really scared and sad to see something going on in my backyard."

"I heard that it was somebody who was trying to break into a car, and a homeowner being a vigilante shot that person," he said.

For those wondering why the “NC Stand Your Ground Law,” which a lot of people call the “Castle Doctrine,” doesn’t apply here – the law that allows people to protect themselves in their homes.

You must be in imminent danger of harm to shoot someone in this situation, and if the person is in the process of leaving your property, the force is not considered justified because the threat is gone.