A man who was shot in both legs by a black gang during a home invasion was lying on the ground, bleeding profusely, as emergency responders attended to his wounds.
In excruciating pain, he had a single message for the attackers: "Forgive them Father, they know not what they have done."
Michael Lash's recitation of Luke 23:34 was related by his wife, Whitney Lash, who posted an update of her husband's condition on a GoFundMe page launched by friends trying to raise a little help for the family.
The attack happened late Sunday at their home in Atlanta. WSB-TV reported a gang of teens with guns approached Michael Lash, but he told them he would not allow them in his house, where his wife and two children were.
TRENDING: America's most dangerous demographic
The response was a gunshot in each leg, the report said.
Lash's mother-in-law, Jessica Huffman, told the station he was a hero. And she warned that the dangerous perpetrators are now fugitives from criminal justice.
"If they've done it once, I think they'll do it again," she said.
The WSB-TV report:
At the Right Scoop, the attack was described as "a harrowing tale that almost sounds more like a nightmare."
Four teens approached Lash, telling him they needed to borrow a jack for their car. But they then tried to force their way inside.
When the shots rang out, Whitney Lash grabbed her infant daughter and ran out the back, escaping at least two shots fired by the home invaders.
Huffman said said one of the gang members followed her and caught up with her at the gate, and she turned around and said, "Please don't shoot me, I have a little baby."
The gang member took her cell phone.
The couple's 2-year-old son was upstairs asleep and was not injured, but the teens ransacked the house before fleeing.
Whitney Lash on Tuesday updated the GoFundMe page, which already had collected about $36,000 to help the family, with word that her husband's surgery was successful.
"Surgeons from Emory came to Grady to perform the surgery. It took twice as long as expected but [he] is doing well considering. If you know Mike you know he is always looking for the positive in any situation."
She continued: "Mike's words are still echoing in me mind, as he was bleeding profusely and in excruciating pain on our floor the amazing police and EMT were working on him while he was proclaiming Luke 23:34 'Forgive them Father, they know not what they have done.'"
She said her husband's "immediate grace and forgiveness for others in the midst of life and death is a constant reminder for me as I feel anger trying to creep in."
"Thank you for your continued prayers as this will be a long recovery not only physically but mentally as well."
Â
Â