Montgomery County Sheriff's Office investigating shooting on Valerie Arms Drive

DAYTON, Ohio (WKEF) -- The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office is investigating a shooting that occurred in Harrison Township on Friday afternoon.

Crews were called to the scene of 3100 block of Valerie Arms Drive at 12:46 p.m. on Friday afternoon.

Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck told Dayton 24/7 Now that the victim was inside his residence, when he heard what he believed to be a saw on metal outside of his home.

"He had been a victim before of catalytic converter crime, he exited his residence, came out and confronted someone who had sawed off his catalytic converter. When he confronted that individual he told them to stop, and that he was going to call the police," said Sheriff Streck.

At that point, the victim was approached and attacked by the suspect.

"During the fight, there was a gunshot where the suspect was shot in the leg with non-life threatening injuries, he was removed to a local hospital. Our victim is still on the scene cooperating with authorities 100% and obviously we're still at the beginning of this investigation," said Sheriff Streck.

Sheriff Streck says that his office is investigating the shooting as a self-defense incident.

"Once the investigation is complete, we'll present everything to the Montgomery County Prosecutor's Office and they will decide how to proceed," said Sheriff Streck.

When asked if the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office has seen an increase in catalytic converter thefts, Sheriff Streck says that they haven't seen an increase, it's just the current amount of thefts that won't stop.

"It really doesn't slow down and it can move from place to place," said Streck. "It's not like there's one group, it's individuals that may be substance abusers or whatever else they need the money for, they'll go buy a power tool and then they'll cut off catalytic converters and unfortunately we have companies that claim they don't know how they got them, but obviously we all know how these people are getting these catalytic converters."