80-year-old grandmother fights off gunman

An 80-year-old grandmother in Florida successfully fended off an armed attacker who was attempting to rob her 61-year-old daughter.

Josefa Lopez told the Sentinel Sun she felt "no fear" when she used her aluminum cane to fight off the gunman who had physically assaulted her daughter.

"I thought she was dead," Lopez said in Spanish. "I yelled at [the gunman], 'I am going to kill you, [son of a b----]!' I wasn't myself. To me, she was dead."

The assailant, who fired a gunshot at Lopez but missed, is still at large. He reportedly pulled Lopez from her Ford Expedition, shouting, "Give me," and pistol-whipped her. That's when the 4-foot-9 Josefa took control of the situation.

"When you see your daughter in trouble," Lopez said, "you have to do something."

Lopez reportedly grabbed the gunman by the back of his shirt and began pulling him away from her daughter. She was about to strike him with her cane when he fired the shot at her.

As it turns out, Teresa Medina was looking out for her mother as well. She says she began shouting during the attack for her mother to leave the scene so she wouldn't be hurt.

"I was worried he was going to do something to my mother," she said in Spanish on Wednesday. "I was trying to scream to my mother to run inside the house."

Medina was driving her mom to see the Spanish variety show "Sabado Gigante" when the attack occurred. Lopez, who turns 81 today, said she would do the same thing again, despite police warnings to not get involved.

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