(CA) Shotgun-Wielding Mom Saves Two-Year-Old From Kidnapper

Stealing candy from a baby is pretty easy, but stealing a baby from a gun-toting mother is a whole different story. Just this past Tuesday, Brianne Rodriguez was placed in a deadly struggle with the fate of her two-year-old daughter hanging in the balance.

At around 8:40 a.m., a man knocked on Rodriguez’s front door of her home in Fresno County, California, but she wisely decided not to answer. A few moments later Rodriguez heard somebody breaking in through the backdoor and things quickly went from bad to worse when the ski mask-wearing intruder attacked Rodriguez. She said the man threw a chair at her, which she tripped over and fell, and that's when her two-year-old daughter started screaming. The intruder saw the little girl and proceeded to walk towards her.

Rodriguez described the terrifying moment, "I was thinking, 'please God don’t let him take my baby.'" She said she grabbed at the man, but he just threw her back to the ground and began kicking her in the ribs and face.

While she was subdued the man then grabbed the helpless child, put his hand around her mouth, snatched Rodriguez's purse and then attempted to flee to his car. Though battered, Rodriguez said she knew she had to do something. "I’m here now, I need to get her, to protect my baby," Rodriguez recalled. "I kicked into lioness mode, protecting my cub."

She said she stumbled to the front of her house, grabbed an unloaded shotgun that she kept in the closet, and confronted the man in her front yard as he made his dash around the house towards his car. She gave the man a very simple ultimatum: drop the child or die.

If the man had called Rodriguez on her bluff, we probably would have turned on the news earlier this week to an Amber Alert. Luckily, the would-be kidnapper dropped the girl and fled the scene. The story also would have gone a lot differently if Rodriguez had enough time to load the gun before confronting him – the kidnapper probably wouldn't have made it two steps before getting transformed into a spaghetti strainer.

Police are investigating the crime and currently looking for the suspect, who is described as a white or light Hispanic man with dirty blonde hair.

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