Cancer survivor stops home invasion with hail of gunfire

Dietta Gueye gets help down the steps at her home in Detroit the day after she scared off five intruders by firing her 9 mm handgun at them. (Photo credit/Fox 2 Detroit)

Residents of inner-city Detroit are taking heed of their police chief's advice: Get a gun, learn how to use it, and don't hesitate to shoot the bad guys.

For the second time in the past week, a Detroit woman with a concealed pistol permit has fired upon her attacker – and sent them running for cover.

The latest incident occurred Tuesday morning, when 34-year-old Dietta Gueye was awakened before dawn by the sound of someone breaking into her bedroom window.

It was five men, at least two of whom were armed with guns.

They may have picked Gueye's home because it appeared to be a soft target. It sits on a street full of abandoned and burnt-out houses, next to an empty field.

But, as the Detroit News reported, they got more than they bargained for.

Gueye heard a tap on the window, then the sound of shattered glass. She quietly reached for the 9 mm Glock she keeps by her bedside.

"They weren't ready for that 9 I had," the woman who survived cancer and previous break-ins told the local newspaper. After her house was robbed three years ago, when she was not home, she got her concealed pistol license, or CPL.

"My first reaction was, survival," she told WJBK Fox 2 in Detroit. "My first thought was, shoot.

"As soon as I was able to feel the barrel of my gun – I shot – and I was shooting."

One of the men shot back and hit Gueye in the right thigh. The bullet entered and exited her body, then lodged in the wall. Just above that bullet hole hangs Gueye's rosary.

Watch the Fox 2 report below:

After several hours of treatment at an area hospital, she was back at home granting interviews to local media.

"I'm kind of just a little sore," she told the Detroit News. "I'm OK, though."

Taking police chief's advice to heart

The incident is the second this week in which a woman with a concealed pistol license opened fire on criminals in Detroit, according to the Detroit News report. On Monday, a 27-year-old woman shot a 16-year-old would-be carjacker in the arm.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig made national news last year when he declared that "good Americans" could help lower the crime rate if they get locked and loaded. If criminals knew people were armed and ready to fire at them, it would make them reconsider their line of work. The alternative is to call the police and wait for them to arrive, which typically happens after the crime has been committed, and possibly after the "good Americans" have had their lives snuffed out.

Gueye believes the five men who broke into her house Tuesday likely will think twice before returning for an encore.

"I hope they take this as a lesson," she told the News. "Beware, because you never know if someone you're trying to hurt is packing."

Alan Gottlieb is founder of the Second Amendment Foundation.

Alan Gottlieb, executive vice president and founder the Second Amendment Foundation, said Gueye's experience is not all that rare.

Thousands of law-abiding Americans use their weapons to ward off crimes every day, but it rarely makes national headlines, he said.

This reticence to report the "life-saving" aspect of guns contrasts with the establishment media's energetic reporting of the opposite scenarios in which a criminal shoots and kills innocent, unarmed people.

That's because the latter type of story fits their narrative of "gun violence" and the inherent evil nature of guns which must be neutralized by more gun control, Gottlieb said.

"The gun prohibition crowd's mantra is 'if it just saves one life,' but when lives are saved by people who use a firearm for self-protection they put their heads in the sand," he said. "Almost 3,000 people a day use a gun for self-defense, and that adds up to a large number of lives saved."

A tap in the darkness

Gueye said she was asleep Tuesday when she heard a tap at her window. "I didn't know what it was; I thought maybe kids were out playing and hit the window with a rock," she told the Detroit News.

Her eyes darted toward the clock: It was 2:37 a.m. Not a time when kids would be playing.

"Then I heard a second tap – then glass shattering," she told the News. "I pulled back the blinds, and to my surprise there was a man with a gun standing there."

Gueye said she was advised years ago on how to handle herself during an armed attack, back when a tax office she worked at was robbed.

"They told me if someone has a gun on you, don't make any quick movements," she continued. "So I kind of slid out of bed. That's when he came through the window.

"Luckily, my purse was on top of my gun, and he didn't see me go for it. I reached under the purse and felt the barrel. Then – oh boy! – here come three ... through the window, and two through the other window. Two of them had guns.

"I just let loose on them. I fired four shots, and they scattered."

Standing in her bedroom, she weighed whether to go through the doorway toward the living room to investigate.

"My instinct told me not to come out of my room," she said. "So I just stood there with the door open."

One of the men who was still in the house fired a single shot, striking her in the right thigh before fleeing.

Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America.

"This ended so much better than in uber anti-Second Amendment New Jersey," said Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America. "Carol Browne, late of Berlin, New Jersey, applied for a permit to purchase a pistol when her ex threatened her. The chief of police did not issue the permit on or before the 30-day deadline. Browne, while waiting for the permit, was knifed to death by the angry ex-boyfriend."

Pratt said he sent a letter to the police chief telling him that "his lawlessness has put her blood on his hands."

'I probably hit them'

The only bullet hole found in Gueye's house was from the shot that struck her thigh.

"They're telling me that means I probably hit them, since there aren't any other bullet holes in the house," she told the Detroit News.

She described the five home invaders as 18 to 22 years old.

Detroit Police Officer Jennifer Moreno told the News, "There's no indication she knew the suspects. There is a good side to guns."

"They weren't ready for me to defend myself," Gueye added. "If I didn't have that gun, who knows what would've happened? Torture, beating. There were five of them."

Police said the incident remains under investigation.

"I just want to encourage a lot of women, get that CPL," Gueye told Fox 2. "And don't be scared. If you got to protect yourself, your life, do not be scared."

Jerry Henry of GeorgiaCarry.org

The two Detroit incidents this week further debunk the claims of Shannon Watts, founder of the Michael Bloomberg-funded Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, that guns are only valuable for stopping crime when in the hands of law enforcement.

"She has no idea what she is talking about," said Jerry Henry, president of GeorgiaCarry.org.

"She stated last year that never in history had a good man with a gun stopped a bad man with a gun. We have seen numerous times since her statement and too many to count before she made it that she is the one that is way off base," Henry told WND.

"As we are aware, many times daily firearms save lives of innocent people," he continued. "Who in their right mind would deny either of these two ladies the right to protect their lives and property? How do so many people in this world come to the conclusion they should be able to restrict the right of these ladies to protect themselves wherever they might be?"