Texas Man Tries to Steal Car with Small Kids in Back Seat, Gets Shot in Head by Mom

(Mark Makela/Getty Images)

A Texas mom shot a man in the head on the Fourth of July after he attempted to steal an SUV with children inside.

The suspect, who was wounded and is in a Dallas-area hospital, was shot in the face by Michelle Booker-Hicks, KXAS-TV reported. She was paying for gas at 10 p.m. at a Shell gas station in southern Dallas when she saw a man get into her car.

Booker-Hicks then ran back into the parking lot and got in the back seat of the car, where her 2-year-old and 4-year-old sons were sitting, according to Fox4.

“I proceeded to jump in my backseat and told the gentleman to stop, to get out the car. He would not get out of the car,“ Booker-Hicks told the station. ”He turned around and looked at me. I reached over the armrest to get my glove compartment and that’s when I fired at him after I grabbed my gun from the glove compartment.”

She told the station that she pulled the trigger once, saying that she intended it to be a warning shot. Instead, she shot him in the face.

“I should have just have emptied the whole clip but I didn’t. I didn’t. I just wanted to give him a warning shot that was it,” Booker-Hicks said.

“I’m not a killer or anything like that, but I do believe in defending what’s mine,” she added.

The man then swerved the SUV and crashed the car into a nearby fence near a McDonald’s.

The man got out of the vehicle and collapsed nearby before police responded.

Police later identified the suspect as 36-year-old Ricky Wright, and he’ll likely face charges for kidnapping and carjacking, Fox4 reported.

Neither Booker-Hicks or her children were injured.

Wright was taken to a hospital, where his injuries are considered non-life-threatening, according to KXAS-TV.