
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 7, 1990                   TAG: 9004070026
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DALLAS                                LENGTH: Medium

WOMAN, 90, HOLDS ROBBER AT GUNPOINT

Ninety-year-old Gena Scarbrough said she learned how to shoot while growing up on a farm but never pointed a weapon at anyone until she stopped a burglar with a borrowed pistol this week.

Police say Scarbrough stood in her carport Tuesday night waiting for an intruder to leave the house. When the burglar climbed out a window carrying a stereo and speakers, Scarbrough aimed the .22-caliber pistol at him.

"I told him, `Put it down right there and don't move! Don't move or I'll shoot!" she said.

Scarbrough said she wasn't the least bit flustered and would have shot the burglar if he hadn't cooperated. She held the intruder at gunpoint until the police arrived several minutes later.

"I'd determined he wasn't going to get away," she said. "He'd broken into my property."

A tenant at the duplex owned by Scarbrough had called her to say that someone was breaking into the other apartment.

After phoning the police, Scarbrough rushed to the property. In her haste, she said, she forgot her shotgun.

But Tommie Barnes, 72, the woman who notified her of the break-in, handed her a handgun and was by her side when Scarbrough confronted the burglar.

Police arrested Manfredo Barrios, 33, in connection with the break-in.

A Dallas police spokesman criticized Scarbrough's action. "This is what we get paid to do," said Cpl. Ray Bilbrey.

But Scarbrough, who sometimes listens to police scanners for entertainment, said she thinks homeowners should know how to defend their property with a firearm.

"I think everybody ought to have one," she said. "You can't always get the police when you need them."

by CNB