80-Year-Old Great-Grandmother Shoots and Kills Home Intruder: ‘I Just Knew I Had to Stop Him’

A great-grandmother in Sultan, Washington, told the media that she shot and killed a home intruder Thursday after her husband was attacked.

"I was just intent upon stopping him. I didn't have any other thought in my head," Barb Moles, 80, told Seattle’s KOMO-TV. "I just knew I had to stop him."

Moles said she was at home with her husband, John, and her adult son when she heard “a commotion.”

She found her husband John bleeding on their kitchen floor, having been stabbed and hit with a crowbar, authorities told KOMO.

"I've been stabbed," he told her.

Barb told the media that she walked into their bedroom and retrieved her .38 caliber pistol — a Christmas gift John had given her a few years ago — and came back into the hallway. When she saw the intruder come around the corner, she said she shot him four times, hitting him three times. He was pronounced dead at the scene by authorities.

Moles, a grandmother of eight and great-grandmother of three, told KOMO, “I'm not just the typical granny — in case you haven't noticed."

“You know, never in my whole life did I ever anticipate having to take another life — especially at age 80 — give me a break here," she said.

"I just did what I had to do, and I'm so sorry for [the intruder's] family," she continued. "I just feel badly for his family."

Moles said that although she feels “horrible” about what happened she wouldn’t hesitate to protect her husband if a similar incident were to occur.

"You know how mothers are with their kids. That's the way I am with my husband," she said.

Stacy Dobson, the couple's daughter, told KOMO she’s thankful for the support her parents have received from the community.

"To have something so senseless like this happen it's just so — it's really been a very surreal week," Dobson said.

John Moles is expected to recover from his injuries.

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