A Clearwater father is speaking out about saving his family after he attacked an intruder and sent him to the hospital. He told sister station WFTS-TV he would do it again, without hesitation, to protect his loved ones.
The mother doesn't want her face shown. She's still rattled from what happened in what's supposed to be her safe zone, her home.
"I hear some weird noises like something breaking and I was shaking and hyper ventilating and freaking out,' said the mother.
She was sleeping in her bedroom with her three-year-old son. She called her boyfriend and her son's father in a panic.
At the same time she ventured out into her kitchen and from what she saw, she knew she was in trouble.
"He broke the locks with a crowbar and pried open the window," she said.
But in those split seconds, her other half pulled into the parking lot behind their Clearwater home and confronted the suspect, 51-year-old Jeffrey Mcowen.
"I had no thought process," he said.
He doesn't want his face shown either, because the man arrested has a criminal history and the couple fears he has friends.
But the dad did not hesitate in doing what he thought he needed to.
"I punched him like three times in the face. He fell down the first time, and I pushed him back down," said the dad.
The showdown happened steps from their home
'I did not even think about if he had a gun. There is no fear or thought with something like that, you do not have a second to think you have to act," said the father.
His actions sent Mcowen to the hospital. Officers did not find a gun on Mcowen, but they did find other dangerous weapons.
"He definitely came here prepared and knew what he was going to do. The situation could have been really bad but thank goodness it wasn't," said the mom.
The father added, "My reaction time I think was perfect and that is why I think everyone came out safe."
But the ordeal was so harrowing the family said they will move, even though the Clearwater home is where their son was born.
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