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A Missouri man was fatally shot after he broke through the locked bedroom door of a Vancouver, Washington, couple while the husband was on the phone with 911, according to the Clark County Sheriff's Office.

The shooting happened about 2:15 a.m. on Aug. 25, 2012, at a home on Northeast 54th Avenue in the Roads End area of east Minnehaha, sheriff's Sgt. Kevin Allais said. Deputies who arrived minutes later found the intruder dead on the bedroom floor.

The Clark County Medical Examiner's Office identified him as Christopher Jon Billings, 42, of Kansas City, Mo. Allais said Billings had no local ties and no criminal record, and that detectives believed he was intoxicated. Minutes before the shooting, a Washington State Patrol trooper on a nearby traffic stop had reported a man matching Billings' description stumbling along the sidewalk and mumbling, and called it in out of concern he was a danger to himself, according to a police statement.

Investigators said Billings tore through a cedar fence behind the driveway and entered the house through an unlocked back door. Homeowner Robert Blakemore, 66, told The Columbian that his wife, Janice, 61, heard a noise, went to investigate and found a man inside. She returned to the bedroom and locked the door, he said. Blakemore said he grabbed a .22-caliber handgun he kept for walks near Vancouver Lake and called 911.

"He's in my house trying to break into my bedroom," Blakemore told the dispatcher, saying the man was "trying to kick the door in." At the dispatcher's direction, he shouted through the door that police were on the way. When Billings forced his way in and moved toward the couple, Blakemore said, he fired until the man stopped advancing.

Allais said the shooting appeared to be self-defense and that the case would go to the Clark County Prosecutor's Office once the investigation was complete. Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Fairgrieve, speaking generally, said Washington law allows deadly force when a person reasonably believes he or others face imminent danger, and that the state carries a heavy burden to disprove a self-defense claim before filing charges.

Billings' sister, Melody Witte of Odessa, Texas, told the newspaper that her brother had gone through a breakup about a week earlier and was staying with a friend who lived near the Blakemores. She said he left seven children, ages 8 to 21.