Dallas mom shoots man who took her car with kids inside

DALLAS - A woman shot a man who she says took her car at a southern Dallas gas station Wednesday night.

Michelle Booker-Hicks told FOX 4 it happened around 10 p.m. as she was paying for her gas at a Shell station along Interstate 35 near Camp Wisdom Road.

Booker-Hicks saw a man get into the car with her 2 and 4-year-old sons in the back seat. She jumped back in too, grabbed a gun from her glove box and shot the man in the face to get him to stop.

“I proceeded to jump in my backseat and told the gentleman to stop, to get out the car. He would not get out of the car. He turned around and looked at me,” she recalled. “I reached over the armrest to get my glove compartment and that’s when I fired at him once I got the gun from my glove compartment.”

The carjacker ran the car off the road and crashed into a fence. He was arrested and taken to the hospital for treatment.

Police identified the suspect as 36-year-old Ricky Wright. He was shot in the face just under his right eye, causing him to crash and later collapse in the middle of the street.

Booker-Hicks and her kids were not hurt.

“I wasn't necessarily worried about my car,” she said. “I was more worried about my kids.”

Booker-Hicks said she only meant to fire a warning shot but almost wishes she would have emptied the whole clip.

“I’m not a killer or anything, but I do believe in defending what’s mine,” she said. “I hope that woke him up.”

Wright is charged with two counts of unlawful restraint and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Court records show he has a long list of charges including assault and family violence, arson, theft, making a terroristic threat, resisting arrest, and drug charges. Police say he’s in serious but stable condition.

As of now, police say there are no charges for Booker-Hicks.

Attorney Toby Shook is not involved in the case. He says it's unlikely Booker-Hicks would face charges for leaving her kids in the car or for choosing to shoot Wright.

“When children are involved, obviously the authorities are going to be very understanding of that,” Shook said. “The law says that if a reasonable person in her situation would have acted the same way, found it immediately necessary to protect herself or a third party, in this case her children, then that's legitimate self-defense.”

Booker-Hicks says she just recently got the gun to defend herself but didn’t think she’d be using it just hours later. She doesn’t have a license to carry. However, police say Texas state law allows people to carry guns inside their car even without a license.