A 67-year-old Los Angeles woman fought off an intruder who burst into her home by utilizing her 26 years of martial arts training. Lorenza Marrujo is less than five feet tall and only weighs about 100 pounds, but than didn’t stop her from fighting off a man who broke into the Fontina senior apartment complex she lives in, CBS 2 reports.
- Lorenza got rid of him once but he still didn’t leave. Recounting the harrowing ordeal, Lorenza revealed that she told the man to “back off” when he was coming towards her and he listened. However, he then went to break into the apartment of 81-year-old Elizabeth McCray, who just so happens to be Lorenza’s friend and neighbor.
- She wasn’t going to let him get away with it! McCray said that the man “grab[bed] and [shook] her” and that she “went down on the floor” because of it. Thankfully, Lorenza heard her screaming and came to the rescue. “I squeezed myself between her and him,” she recalled. “I put mama on the side, and I jumped on him and I was punching him and everything, and I had the cane against his throat.”
- Lorenza didn’t want to kill the man, just subdue him. She made sure to hold him down until police arrived as she couldn’t bear to let the man avoid justice. “I squeezed myself between her and him,” she said. “He lifted up and tried to twist my hand, but at the same time, I twisted his and turned it around real fast and he was saying, ‘You’re hurting me, you’re hurting me,'” Marrujo said. “And I said, ‘I don’t care. I don’t care what happens to you. You had no right to hurt an elderly person.'”
- The suspect was taken into custody but police advise people to call 911 if they need help. While Lorenza was thankfully unhurt in the altercation, authorities would still prefer if you didn’t take matters into your own hands. “We recommend that you dial 911 for emergency assistance, which, in this case, she did that, and she also jumped in,” said Jennie Venzor, spokesperson for the Fontana Police Department. “What she told me is that her training kicked in, and it was like a muscle memory. She knew she had to help her friend out.” You go, Lorenza!
