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Armed woman foils home invaders
YOUNGSTOWN
A South Side woman who foiled two potential home invaders Tuesday morning by calling 911 and firing one shot from her handgun said she plans to remain in her home and would use the gun again if she has to.
Phyllis Brown, who resides in the 2700 block of Cain Street, said she heard a slamming noise while she was in the bathroom, then opened the front door and saw two young men on her porch, one of them pointing a handgun at her head.
She slammed the door, fled to her bedroom, got her handgun, called 911, opened the kitchen window and fired one shot into the ground at about 11 a.m., she recalled.
The men fled as police arrived, she said. Police took her gun as evidence.
“I just thank God that nobody got hurt,” Brown said in an emotional interview in her home an hour after the confrontation. “It’s the first time I ever fired that gun,” she added.
“I had one knee replaced. I don’t know how I made it to the bedroom. If I had fallen, they would have come on in here and killed me,” she said of the would-be intruders.
Brown, 56, who retired from WCI Steel in Warren in 2006 after working there for 30 years, suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and uses crutches.
“I worked hard for what I’ve got. ... I’m going to protect myself,” she vowed.
“It’s just sad the way these young people want to take what you worked for,” she observed.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a gun pointed in my face,” Brown said. “I’ll be ready for them next time,” she said of any future home invaders. “I will have it on me at all times,” she said of her gun.
“It’s sad you have to live like that,” she added.
Her home alarm system has foiled two previous burglary attempts.
“God was with me today. I know that,” Brown concluded.
City police searched the area but found no suspects.