The man was threatening to commit suicide unless he was granted asylum, the ITAR-Tass news agency said.
Neighbors say the thief had it coming.
But the local prosecutor charges the woman with murder, setting off a gun-control debate in a country whose weapons laws are among the most restrictive in Europe. For an ordinary Pole, owning a handgun is nearly impossible. In Warsaw, for example, a city of 2.4 million, there are about 2,500 licensed handgun owners. Most of them belong to carefully vetted private security guards and, for some strange reason, politicians. Homicides declined slightly overall.