A 71-year-old woman beat an intruder unconscious with a hatchet after she and her great-granddaughter were attacked by the assailant, a female acquaintance.
"She picked the wrong woman," Elizabeth Butts said Thursday. "The only thing I hate is that I didn't kill her."The intruder was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital in critical condition with a fractured skull and deep facial cuts. She was in fair condition Friday morning.
Terry Westbrook will be charged with armed robbery and aggravated assault, said Metro-Dade police Lt. Richard Carey.
Westbrook was an acquaintance of Butts who stopped by the house she shares with her granddaughter and 16-month-old great-granddaughter, Nicole Williams, and asked for money, saying she had just gotten out of prison, police said.
Butts, holding the baby, wouldn't give her any money, so Westbrook grabbed for Butts' gold chains, said Metro Detective Donald Blocker.
The intruder hit Butts on the head with a folding metal chair and a ceramic lamp. At some point, little Nicole also was struck, getting a bump on the head.
As the woman tried to unlock the front door to leave, Butts put Nicole down, reached into a utility closet and pulled out a hatchet. She then beat the woman into unconsciousness.
"If somebody comes to your house and robs you, what would you do?" Butts asked. "I should have had my gun, but I couldn't get to it."
"I wouldn't want old people generally doing this kind of thing," Blocker said. "The average person her age couldn't do this."