TwitterSometimes the truth is simply wilder than fiction.
Lynne Russell, author and former host of CNN Headline News, and her husband, Chuck de Caro, were both shot on Tuesday in an armed robbery attempt at their New Mexico motel where they were staying while on a road trip together, a terrifying encounter that ended in the suspect being shot to death.
De Caro was the one who fired the fatal shots, according to his wife, who also noted that they are licensed to legally carry handguns and therefore had them in their room.
"The man pushed me inside, I was airborne, literally," Russell, who was shot three times, told Albuquerque's ABC 7. And [I] landed on the bed, and that was about the time that Chuck came out of the shower. "The man was just wild. He was pointing the gun, and the way that he was acting, it was as if he'd done it before."
"[The intruder] came over, grabbed the briefcase, and I thought for a moment he was just going to leave because he had something," Russell continued. "Then he turned around and he opened fire. My husband returned fire. And he's a better shot."
"It was a gun battle, and Chuck was bleeding heavily, but he didn't stop firing because the man was firing on him, and he was looking for me," she also told the New York Post.
De Caro, also shot three times, was recovering after undergoing surgery at University of New Mexico Hospital, ABC 7 also reported. The suspect died at the scene.
Russell was the first woman to solo-anchor a primetime network newscast during her nearly 20-year tenure at CNN Headline News. She moved on to Canada's CBC Newsworld and then hosted a radio program in Toronto.