KLTV 7 News Tyler, Longview, Jacksonville |Kilgore homeowner fights off armed invader

Kilgore homeowner fights off armed invader

A would-be robber invaded an East Texas home while the homeowner fights to keep him and his son alive.

The home invasion happened in the 4500 block of FM 2204, east of Kilgore, around 7:00 this morning. Gregg County officials say an armed man entered the home in search of money, but left empty handed. Tuesday afternoon, the homeowner showed KLTV 7 LaKecia Shockley step by step how he survived his home invasion.

"I slammed him into this wall here and I think that's when we fell on the floor. I wasn't going to let go of him. I had him...I wasn't going to let go of his gun hand."

Mark Dickey is a brave and lucky man.

Mark says he was in his living room when a man armed with a nine millimeter gun walked through his front door with a demand.

"The door comes open, I see a silver plated gun and a guy behind it with a blue bandanna on...so I was just in shock," Dickey told us Tuesday.

"He says, 'Where do you keep your money?' And I said well, we don't keep any money in the house and he says well where's your wallet...at that point I thought if I turned here and gave him my wallet he's going to shoot me for sure. He'd already told me he would."

Mark told the robber his wallet was in the bedroom. That's when he decided to act.

"I bought myself a little time and walked into my bedroom and came back and I got close enough to him in my front room where I could grab him," said Mark.

"I grabbed his gun hand and we started tussling and we came this way towards my kitchen...we came this way and he was hitting me and I was hitting him and I pushed him into my wife's mirror right there."

Mark says thanks to his second degree black belt in karate, he was able to get a hold on the gun.

"I had his wrist and he was trying to get that gun pointed down to where he could shoot me but he couldn't get it down because I had his wrist locked," described Mark. "He fired a shot and as you can tell we looked for it and the police finally found it right here out my kitchen window."

During the struggle, Mark's 14 year old son was hiding in a closet. Mark yelled for his help, hoping it would scare off the intruder.

"I called for my son to get my gun and I think that he knew that somebody else was in here so he left," said Mark.  

"The only thing that was going through my mind was my son's safety, you know. None of us know how we would react with a gun pointed at us so that was my first time, but I can tell you I wouldn't relish the thought of that happening again. I can tell you that," said Mark.

Deputies are looking for a black male believed to be in his late teens to early twenties. He was last seen wearing a blue bandana, dark shirt, and blue jeans. If you have any information, call the Gregg County Sherrif's department.

LaKecia Shockley, reporting. lshockley@kltv.com