Alabama grandmother holds suspected car thief at gunpoint until deputies arrive to arrest him
A gun-wielding Alabama grandmother-of-four made full use of her Second Amendment rights as she used a rifle to confront a wanted man in her driveway after he crashed a stolen car near her home.
According to WAAY-TV, 75-year-old Marcia Black was just going about her day when Cameron Powers, a man accused of being a car thief, entered her property in Limestone County and walked towards her front porch. Marcia is the mother to Limestone County District Three Commissioner Jason Black, and her son had told her to be on the lookout for Powers. He had warned her to protect herself if he came to the door.
So, when he showed up, she knew she had to mean business. She walked to confront him with her rifle. Behind her, inside the home, were two of her granddaughters who she knew she had to protect at all costs. "I walked out and said, 'Can I help you?' and he said, 'Yes, ma'am, I'd like to use your phone'," she revealed. "I was just calm as could be. I knew what I was doing. I was in control."
The 24-year-old Powers had been on the run from authorities for several hours after crashing a stolen car near the intersection of Snake Road and E & L Lane, close to Marcia's home, and the 75-year-old knew that she could hold him until the police arrived at the scene and took him into custody.
"I wanted to keep him at a distance," Marcia explained. "I didn't intend to kill him. I just wanted him to think that I would shoot him."
But when Powers started inching towards her porch, Black knew she had to react. "He wouldn't get down, so I shot in the air, and he realized I meant business, so he got down on his knees," she said.
Meanwhile, 15-year-old Allie Ruth, Marcia's granddaughter who was watching from the inside, dialed 911. Not long after, deputies arrived at the scene, prompting Powers to make a run for it. But he didn't make it too far before he was apprehended and taken away in handcuffs.
"He feared the deputy more than he feared my rifle," Marcia told WAAY-TV. "He jumped up and ran zig-zag right across the field." Asked to describe her encounter with Powers, Marcia said it was "just another day," and that, "If something happens, you take care of it and that’s it." However, for Allie, it was anything but normal. "It’s just amazing to me that I got to witness my grandmother in action," she gushed.
Powers was charged with auto theft and attempting to elude capture. He is currently being held on a $6,000 bond in Limestone County jail.