Cancer survivor gets CPL for protection, fires at suspects during break-in

It came in handy Tuesday morning.

She was in bed when five men burst through her windows at 2:30 a.m. But they didn't know that Dietta was locked and loaded and not afraid to start firing.

Dietta got her CPL three years ago when her house was robbed. After hearing the men come in, she grabbed her gun and started firing. 

"Imagine being woke up out of your sleep with somebody (holding) a gun in your face," she told FOX 2's Amy Lange. "My first reaction was survival. My first thought was shoot."

She was tucked into bed and sound asleep, when the first man crashed through her bedroom window. 

It's likely he nor the men that followed knew she was in there or that she had a gun. 

She said they avoided the backyard, where the dogs were kept and climbed through using a crate to get into the front window. She couldn't see, and said that they had taken he light bulb from the front porch.

But she didn't need sight to grab her gun. It was by her side, in her bed.

"As soon as I was able to feel the barrel of my gun - I shot - and I was shooting," Dietta said.

At least one of them was shooting back as they were trying to flee the house and one tried to escape through an upstairs window. When he couldn't get out, he came back down the stairs and fired one last shot that went through Dietta's thigh.

"The bullet it went in and it came out," she said.

When the bullet exited her leg, into went into the wall next to her window, just feet below a rosary that hangs in the same spot.

Dietta's mother, Diane Swift, is proud of her daughter but thankful for the outcome.

'I'm just thanking God that it turned out the way that it did and she didn't get harmed," Diane said. "She got injured but we can patch that up."

This latest break-in comes the day after another woman, also a CPL holder, defended herself during an attempted carjacking on Auburn. That woman shot the 16-year-old gunman who had tried to take her car.

Dietta says more power to her. Specifically, more firepower to all woman forced to defend themselves.

"I just want to encourage a lot of women to get their CPL," Dietta said. "And don't be scared if you've got to protect yourself and your life. Do not be scared."