After Alleged Home Intruder Stabs 75-Year-Old Man, Victim’s 80-Year-Old Wife Fights Back With Deadlier Weapon

After an 80-year-old woman heard a noise in her western Washington home Thursday night, she told police she went to investigate.

Upon entering another room, she told police that she saw a stranger holding a large knife and standing over her 75-year-old husband, who had been stabbed at least once in the abdomen, Fire Chief Merlin Halverson with the Snohomish County Fire District 5 told KOMO-TV.

"She sneaks into her bedroom, digs around in her closet and comes out with a gun she's got hidden there," Halverson told the station. "I'm not certain what kind of gun it was. [She] comes out, fires several shots and kills [the alleged intruder]."

The woman's husband was airlifted to a hospital where he was listed in serious but stable condition, KOMO reported.

The woman told police the intruder broke through a back door in her Sultan home, which is about an hour northeast of Seattle. She called 911 after the incident and was not injured.

The alleged intruder was identified only as a 25-year-old Gold Bar man and pronounced dead at the scene. The couple's 45-year-old son was also home at the time, KIRO-TV reported, and wasn't injured.

Halverson told KOMO the alleged intruder may have been after prescription drugs.

"I saw all kinds of pill bottles laying next to him," he told the station.

(H/T: Bearing Arms)