MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A South Florida man turned the tables on a pair of crooks early Thursday morning after they tried to storm into his home in northwest Miami-Dade.
"I felt like if I was to die right there, they would kill my grandmother and great-grandmother, Lord forbid -- God forbid," Pherrick Thomas said.
Thomas told Local 10 News that someone knocked on his back door at 2 a.m. Thursday.
He said he opened the door to find a woman he knew standing there, Georicka Mathes, 23. Soon after, he was greeted with a gun by another man, later identfied by police as Marquan Humphrey, 26.
"We were talking for a second, because it's 2 in the morning, I'm trying to catch up, and the next thing you know a man with a rifle ran up talking about, 'Give me everything,'" Thomas said.
A struggle unfolded at the home on Northwest 85th Street, where Thomas lives with his grandmother and great-grandmother.
The two elderly women tried to defend themselves from the man and woman invading their home.
Thomas said his grandmother fought back with a brick while he took the man's gun.
"I turned the rifle around just in time," he said. "I had enough strength from seeing them hit my grandmother to actually shoot the man."
Thomas said an officer patrolling around the corner heard the shots and responded immediately.
The two suspects left in a car but were later captured by police, authorities said. Police said a second man was also seen in the victim's backyard, but he has not been found.
Humphrey was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital to be treated for his gunshot wound and Mathes, who police said previously dated the victim, was taken into custody.
Thomas suffered a few scratches and a gash above his eye during the incident.
"They weren't strong enough, that's all I can say," he said. "The devil wasn't strong enough tonight."
Mathes and Humphrey both face armed robbery charges.