She’d heard her puppies barking and went to the bathroom to check on them, Carson said.

“As
soon as she cracked the door, he grabbed her by the hair, put the gun
in her ear and said, ‘If you make a sound, I’ll blow your brains out,’”
John Parrish said Wednesday afternoon.

The intruder forced Parrish’s wife to the ground, tied her hands and feet with duct tape, and put a blanket over her head.

Parrish said he went to find his wife, and soon met the same fate – lying face down with his hands taped behind his back.

“He told me, ‘I don’t want to hurt you. I just want your money,’” Parrish said.

He told the invader he di...

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She’d heard her puppies barking and went to the bathroom to check on them, Carson said.

“As
soon as she cracked the door, he grabbed her by the hair, put the gun
in her ear and said, ‘If you make a sound, I’ll blow your brains out,’”
John Parrish said Wednesday afternoon.

The intruder forced Parrish’s wife to the ground, tied her hands and feet with duct tape, and put a blanket over her head.

Parrish said he went to find his wife, and soon met the same fate – lying face down with his hands taped behind his back.

“He told me, ‘I don’t want to hurt you. I just want your money,’” Parrish said.

He told the invader he didn’t have any.

As
the intruder stalked through the house, the retired freight dockworker
hustled to free himself, twisting and wriggling his arms first, then
crawling to the kitchen to find scissors to cut his legs free.

“I had to get my gun,” Parrish said.

Meanwhile, the intruder found a 10-year-old girl in the first-floor
living room waiting to continue her tennis lessons with Carlson.

“He
grabbed her and asked if anyone else was in the house,” said Carlson’s
son, Chad, who came home from North Carolina on Wednesday after the
incident.

The girl led the intruder to Danny Carlson’s office on the second floor of the house.

“I
thought it was the little girl coming up to get me,” Carlson said. “But
when I looked up, he had his arm around her and the gun pointed at me.”

The invader told the girl to sit down, and he bound Carlson and covered his head with a blanket.

“Then I...

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Meanwhile, the intruder found a 10-year-old girl in the first-floor
living room waiting to continue her tennis lessons with Carlson.

“He
grabbed her and asked if anyone else was in the house,” said Carlson’s
son, Chad, who came home from North Carolina on Wednesday after the
incident.

The girl led the intruder to Danny Carlson’s office on the second floor of the house.

“I
thought it was the little girl coming up to get me,” Carlson said. “But
when I looked up, he had his arm around her and the gun pointed at me.”

The invader told the girl to sit down, and he bound Carlson and covered his head with a blanket.

“Then I just heard shooting,” he said.

Parrish had found his gun, loaded it, and sneaked upstairs.

“I shot three times and heard him groan,” Parrish said.

The intruder fired back twice, hitting Carlson once in the back of his right calf, and just missing Parrish.

“He ran past me and down the stairs out of the house,” Parrish said. “That shot came pretty close.”

Police
say the suspect, described as a 6-foot-tall, roughly 250-pound black
man in his 40s or 50s, is still at large, despite a lengthy search of
the woods and nearby Silver Comet Trail near Carlson’s home.

Police say the intruder may have been wounded in the shootout.

Carlson said Parrish shot three times, “but we couldn’t find the bullets, so they must be in the intruder.”

Carlson was taken to the hospital and treated for the gunshot wound and a shattered tibia.

“The worst thing in the whole scenario is that the little girl had to witness all the gunfire,” Carlson said.

While Carlson said he would increase the security in the house, Parrish noted one thing he would do different.

“My wife never did want me to keep my gun loaded,” he said. “But now she said she does.”