CHICAGO, Ill. - Turning the tables on three attackers after they broke into his family's Chicago home late Sunday, a man wrestled a gun away from one of the suspects and fired back, striking them.
Ayman Baker was celebrating his younger brother’s birthday with his parents and four other siblings at their family's first-floor apartment near O'Hare Sunday night. Just after 11 p.m., three men entered the apartment demanding property and money.
The men pistol-whipped Baker and his brother, but Baker told WGN his first instinct was to fight back and he struggled against one of the intruders.
“All I could think about during the whole moment was protecting my family,” Baker said. “I kept wrestling with him to the point where he closed the door and he kicked it down and I threw it back at him."
The attackers moved to another room and threatened his mother, Baker said, forcing her to the ground, putting a gun to her head, and pulling the trigger - but the gun jammed.
With five of his siblings and his parents in danger, Baker says he chased after the attackers as they fled, jumping from a bedroom window and chasing them as they headed towards a waiting van until he caught up with one of them.
“That’s when I ran up to him, took the gun and I shot him twice," Baker said. "When all of this was happening I was being shot at and didn’t realize it.”
Baker said he ran barefoot after the van as the suspects attempted to get away.
“I started shooting in the vehicle, I shot out all the windows, all I remember is that the gun jammed. I unjammed it – and I guess it just continued, and I chased them down the alley,” he said.
Amazingly, everyone in Baker’s family is fine - no one was seriously injured. The 30-year-old just got engaged, and he says he’s happy his fiancee was working at her job as a nurse and not in harm’s way.
While neighbors say there has been a spike in crime in the area recently, Baker says his actions are a message to criminals that Chicagoans have had enough.
“My life is definitely worth sacrificing for my family. I didn’t hesitate, never hesitate – I would do the same thing for family and friends, neighbors we have to come together as a community and protect each other,” Baker said.
The man shot by Baker is believed to be in the hospital recovering as police search for the other two suspects.
