Mom Shoots Suspected Carjacker Trying To Take SUV With Kids Inside
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – A suspected carjacker is in the hospital after a North Texas woman shot him as he tried to take off in her SUV with her two children in the backseat.
The incident happened just after 10:00 p.m. Wednesday, when Dallas police say the woman stopped for gasoline at a Shell station on Camp Wisdom Road.
The mother, who does not want to be identified, left her children in the SUV while she ran inside the convenience store. Before she returned a man jumped into her vehicle and tried to drive away, but the woman saw what was happening and jumped in the back seat.
mom shoots carjacker 1 Mom Shoots Suspected Carjacker Trying To Take SUV With Kids Inside
(credit: CBSDFW.COM)
The woman told CBS 11 News she tried to get the man, later identified as Rickey Wright, to stop but he refused. At that point she was able to open her glove box, pull out a gun, and shoot Wright in the head.
"I should have just have emptied the whole clip but I didn't. I didn't. I just wanted to give him a warning shot that was it," she said. "I'm not a killer or anything like that, but I do believe in defending what's mine."
The mother said she had just put the gun in the SUV hours before after her husband helped her with reloading. "I told him that I needed some bullets for my gun and he told me that he was going to go get it."
Wright crashed into a light pole and was later taken to a local hospital. Thursday morning he was said to be in serious but stable condition. As he recovers the mother wanted to tell Wright something. "I wish I would've killed you, if I didn't already," she said.
Wright has been charged with two counts of Unlawful Restraint and Unauthorized Use of Motor Vehicle. Court records show he has been arrested more than 20 times on a variety of charges — including unauthorized use of a vehicle, possession of marijuana, evading arrest, assault and theft.
Police questioned the woman at the scene and then told her she was free to go. Neither she nor her two children — ages two and four — were hurt during the shooting or crash.