After 3 break-ins, Detroit man calmly shoots, kills intruder, cops say
By TAMMY STABLES BATTAGLIA
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Tigh Croff’s home in Detroit had been broken into three times in the last week.

So when he found two men in his backyard on the block of Manistique at 12:30 a.m. Monday, the east-side resident — who is licensed to carry a gun — gave chase, Detroit police said.

One man got away. The other stopped running, turned around, put his hands up and, according to a police source, taunted the 31-year-old homeowner.

“What are you going to do?” Herbert Silas of Detroit reportedly asked, his hands still in the air. “Shoot me?”

“Absolutely,” Croff told investigators he replied before pulling the trigger, the source said. Silas was hit once in the chest, killing him.

Silas, 53, was unarmed when he was fatally shot, Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office spokeswoman Maria Miller said Tuesday.

Croff now faces charges of second-degree murder and felony firearm, Miller said. He is set to be arraigned at noon Wednesday in Detroit’s 36th District Court.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said today that more facts will come out in court.

We have sound reasons for charging the defendant as we did," Worthy said. "All the relevant evidence will be presented in court.”

Detroit police spokesman John Roach would not discuss specifics of the shooting. The phone number listed for Croff’s home was disconnected.