DULUTH, Ga. — Police have released 911 tapes of a sobbing woman afraid to return home after a man attacked her in her bathroom.
911 Tapes Released In Fatal Intruder Shooting
The 53-year-old woman, who is also a veteran private school counselor, was alone at the time of last week's attack. She lives on East Mount Tabor Circle in Duluth.
After the attack, the woman ran over to a neighbor's house for help. She can be heard yelling in the house as the neighbor speaks to 911 dispatchers. The neighbor told a dispatcher the woman was hysterical, but eventually she was calm enough to speak for herself.
[ LISTEN: Gwinnett Woman Attacked 911 Call ]
The woman said she was in the shower when an armed hooded man confronted her.
"He could've killed me. He had a knife, and he turned the lights off," she said in tears.
The woman tried to fight the man off with a shower rod, and the struggle moved to her bedroom, police said.
"He tried to force me on the bed, and I told him I had a child and that I had money," she told the operator.
But she was lying about having a child, and instead of handing over cash, she grabbed a gun.
"I took my .22, and I shot him as much as I could," she said. "I don't know where he is. He might have taken my other gun."
Police said she shot the man nine times. They said he ran out of a back door and collapsed in her yard, but the victim was unaware.
"I shot him with a .22, but he just kept running," she said. "I can't go back there."
The man, later identified as Cuban national Israel Perez Puentes, died at Gwinnett Medical Center, police said. They said neighbors had spotted Puentes' car in the neighborhood several days before the attack but did not report it. Puentes lived in Alpharetta and was previously arrested on eight felony charges.
The victim was treated for non-life-threatening injuries. She told dispatchers she had hurt her back.