Criminals like to prey on the elderly because they’re often weak and frail and considered soft targets. Howard Poche of Jeanerette, Louisiana, for example, was brutally murdered in his home on Christmas Day, most likely for drug money. The frail 75-year-old was an active member of his church and a pillar of his community, which is devastated by his loss.
A 74-year-old grandma in Bowie County, Texas, could have met the same fate when an armed home invader broke into her home, but she had something Mr. Poche lacked — a firearm of her own.
According to KSLA News 12, Rebbie Roberson was just about to sit down and watch the evening newscast Sunday night when someone wearing gloves and a mask broke into her home.
“And when I started to get up, he was in here on me with a gun facing me right to my face.”
What she did next took the gunman by surprise.
“So I had to walk right out in front of him,” Rebbie Roberson said as she recalled the harrowing encounter. “I didn’t know if he was going to kill me or what.”
But she had her own weapon on a table nearby.
“I reached over there and grabbed this gun. And when I swerved around, I pointed it at him and he ran.”
When Roberson fired at the intruder with her .38-caliber pistol, she was shooting to kill, she says.
“I’m not sure I didn’t hit him. I don’t know yet. I sure tried. I sure was hoping,” she said. “That was the scare of my life.”
It was probably the scare of the home invader’s life, too.
Bowie County, Texas, sheriff’s deputies are looking for the would-be bandit, who they don’t believe was wounded.
“I tried to kill him. Anybody break in on me, I’m going to kill them. He’s going to kill me or I’m going to kill him,” Roberson said. “That’s all I have to say about that!”
Roberson told KSLA that she always has her gun close by when she’s at home, but hopes that she won’t have to use it again.
“It could have been worse for both individuals, both the victim and the suspect,” Bowie County Sheriff Chief Deputy Jeff Neal said.
Sheriff’s investigators said they have no problem with the action taken by this pistol-packing granny.
“Every citizen, according to the Texas penal code, has the right to defend themselves and their family.”
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