Pistol-packing Texas grandma faces down armed intruder

An ArkLaTex grandma was not about to let an armed intruder take her alive. The 74-year-old was just about to watch the KSLA News 12 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."
With her .38-caliber pistol in hand, Roberson said she followed him, all the while firing her gun and leaving bullet holes in the walls of her home.  "I'm not sure I didn't hit him. I don't know yet. I sure tried. I sure was hoping. That was the scare of my life."

Investigators do not believe the armed intruder 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."  While at home, Roberson said, she always has her gun close.  But she said this was the first and, hopefully, last time she will have to use it.
"It could have been worse for both individuals, both the victim and the suspect," Bowie County sheriff's 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."
Now Bowie County, Texas, sheriff's deputies are looking for the would-be bandit.   Authorities ask anyone with information about the break-in to call the Bowie County Sheriff's Office at (903) 798-3149.