Three young boys are being credited with helping save their mother’s life after their father threatened to shoot her during a fight outside their Louisiana home, authorities said on Monday.
The mother told police the couple began wrestling shortly after they arrived at their home in Moss Bluff on Saturday when her husband followed her outside with a “pistol behind his back and then fired a shot at her.”
The boys – ages 10, 12 and 14 – were quick to react when their parents were on the ground wrestling outside their home, and the man dropped the gun. One of the boys picked up the pistol and emptied it of its ammunition, while a second son grabbed another gun in the house and used it to get their father off of their mother, authorities said.
"I think those kids are very brave," Sheriff Tony Mancuso said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
The mother and her sons then ran to a neighbor’s house until police arrived, and the man went back into the house, according to a news release.
The person who called the police said the man was wearing a bulletproof vest and was shooting off rounds from a semi-automatic rifle, the news release said. When authorities arrived, the man left in his pickup truck and a car chase ensued.
At its end, Mancuso said, "He had weapons on him, he had body armor on him. He was yelling at them and telling them he wanted them to shoot him. They had great restraint."
Mancuso said a deputy had to use a stun gun to subdue him.
The man was arrested and charged with second-degree attempted murder, domestic abuse child endangerment, aggravated assault with a firearm, illegal discharge of a weapon, illegal discharge of a weapon during a crime of violence, illegal use of body armor during a crime of violence, and flight from an officer. His bond was set at $247,000.
It was not clear whether he has an attorney.
The Associated Press did not release the name of the father in order to protect the boys’ identities.
Mancuso said the husband had no previous arrests and had never been named in a domestic violence complaint.
If convicted, Mancuso said he will “never be allowed to have guns again” as a new law requires all guns to be taken from a domestic violence scene.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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