A little after 7:00, an armed intruder went on a home invasion at a residence in an isolated area of the village. Betty Westby was cooking for her 82 year old mother and 14 year old mentally challenged son when a hooded figure entered the house. It's a story we've heard many times before in the city, and most times in ends in bloodshed or battery, but nothing could have prepared us for how dramatically this Pastor's wife flipped the script:

Robin Schaffer reporting
This rustic home in a country setting may seem serene, but it was the scene of a traumatic home invasion in Crooked Tree Village last night.

While cooking dinner for her family, Betty Westby heard a loud noise, and when she went to investigate she came face to face with a hooded figure holding her 82 year old mother, who has a heart condition, at knife point.

Betty Westby - Victim of Home Invasion
"When he saw me he just threw my mom across from right here where we are sitting and he came directly at me with the knife. I grab a whole of his hand with the knife with both my hands and I held on with that hand because I knew that was what he could hurt me with and we struggle and we fought and he kind of push me down right here where I am sitting and he put one of his foot in my stomach and then he held me here with on hand and then the other hand with the knife I had held and he said get on the floor. I said I am not going on the floor. He said I am going to kill you. I said you will kill me but I will look right in your face until you kill me. I said tell me what you want and I will give it to you, but I am not going to go on that floor. I felt the force of that young man's hand trying to get that knife into me. My hands hurt because of trying to restrain him."

In that moment, held at knife point, where most of us would have given in to panic, Betty Westby took on a steely resolve to protect her family at all costs.

Betty Westby - Victim of Home Invasion
"I was thinking how dare you come into my house and try to do this and I told him that. I said how dare you? This is my home. I said in the name of Jesus you are not going to hurt me, you are not going to kill me nor my mom. I said take what you want and you leave, At this point the fright of everything kind of pass and I was angry. What I was really thinking was that you are not going to violate me nor my mother. That was what was going through my mind. I said God, take charge of the situation and I spoke it out loudly and when I said that the young man face got pale. I saw he was more frighten that I was, but he was still insisting that I get on the floor and I was not going to go on that floor."

They struggled for about 5 minutes, and that's when his hood came off and she saw her attacker's face:

Maurice Westby- victim of home invasion
"The hood came off during the struggle and she saw the person and she knew who it was - somebody who had been in and out of our house working to put on the same addition along with my brother and so she said oh it's you and she rebuke him. We are Christians and she said in the name of Jesus you are not going to come in my house and kill me."

The commotion alerted Westby's 14 year old mentally challenged son.

Betty Westby - Victim of Home Invasion
"He heard the commotion and so he came out and when he saw this young man with this knife over me he scream and that was when I realize that there was a second person because the young man became distracted from me, but when I son scream I said run "deege" and I heard him say grab him."

Betty Westby seized the opportunity to grab her husband's gun, but weary of loading it in front of her attacker, she ran.

Betty Westby - Victim of Home Invasion
"I grab my husband's gun and I went outside with the gun and I laid on my stomach on a clump of bushes and I loaded the gun. I hid my mother behind that curtain there and I told her don't move. And so while I was on my stomach I took my phone out of my pocket and I call my husband because I didn't have a number for any of the police men in Crooked Tree, but I knew that he had their numbers, so I call him and I said dad, two men are holding up me and mamma right now. He said what, I said yes and he cut off immediately and he called the police."

"While I was down there on the ground the guys came out and they were just like from here to that step end there, but they didn't see me. I was on the ground and so they were talking and then I was thinking what do I do."

As she lay on the ground, clutching her weapon, she saw the attackers leave. From there, she then secured their home and held the fort with the gun at her side:

Maurice Westby- victim of home invasion
"And so she open the door with the police pointing the gun at the police until she saw it was the police and she said okay sir, I am sorry, open the door and took out the cartridge and then I got home shortly after that, but nobody was injured. Praise God and thank God."

When the attacker left the house he did take the family's rifle. The community is advised that he is armed and dangerous. Police and villagers continue to search for him.