Mom shoots man trying to steal her car with kids inside: 'Should have just emptied the whole clip

A quick stop at the gas station almost ended in a car theft and kidnapping in Dallas on Wednesday night, but a mother's quick thinking and sharp aim with her gun saved her children and vehicle, KTVT-TV reported.

When a man tried to steal her car with her 2- and 4-year-old children inside, the mother grabbed the gun out of her glove box and shot him in the head. The suspect survived, although the mother isn't necessarily pleased with that outcome.

"I wish I would've killed you, if I didn't already," she told KTVT when asked if she had a message for the suspect, who was hospitalized in serious but stable condition.

What happened?

The mother, who preferred not to be identified, stopped for gas at a Shell station in south Dallas. She left her children inside her SUV and went inside the convenience store.

While she was inside, the suspect, Rickey Wright, reportedly hopped in the vehicle.

The woman ran out of the store and tried to stop Wright and get him out of the vehicle. He refused, the mother said, but during the altercation she was able to reach a gun she had in her glove box. She fired one shot, hitting him in the head. Wright crashed the vehicle into a light pole.

Wright was taken into custody and sent to the hospital. He has been charged with two counts of unlawful restraint and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. It's just one of more than 20 arrests on Wright's record, some of them for drugs, assault, and theft.

What else?

The mother said she went easy on him and that Wright deserved more than he got for trying to take her children and car.

"I should have just emptied the whole clip but I didn't," she told KTVT. "I didn't. I just wanted to give him a warning shot, that was it. I'm not a killer or anything like that, but I do believe in defending what's mine."