Family members say a man who burst into a Fort Worth home and shot a couple in their late 60s on Tuesday demanded their ATM card and PIN as they were on the floor seriously wounded.
The couple, John and Diane Porter, both 69 years old, were getting ready to leave their home on Cool Spring Drive and had just opened the garage door when a man surprised them, said Diane Porter's brother-in-law, Larry Preuit.
"It was a shock to everyone and very hard, and it's still difficult to talk about," Preuit said Thursday.
Diane Porter was shot in the stomach and is recovering at John Peter Smith Hospital after a second surgery Thursday morning, Preuit said.
John Porter was shot in the head and is in grave condition, Preuit said.
"I understand she was shot right away, and then there was a scuffle and the husband got beat, and that's when he got shot," Preuit said.
Remarkably, Diane Porter is sharing details of the attack from her hospital bed, her family says.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
"I think she's still in shock over the whole thing, but she can tell you pretty much," Preuit said. "She's pretty savvy about what happened and she has a story to tell."
She told family members the gunman demanded money.
"Somewhere along the line, he took the ATM card out of the purse," Preuit said.
With the couple lying wounded on the ground, the gunman wasn't done, the family said.
"He wanted the code and said he would come back and kill her – come back and kill all of them – if she didn't give him the right code," Preuit said. "But he already shot them."
The couple worked together for years at Southwestern Bell, which is now AT&T, before retiring, Preuit said. John Porter continued working part-time at Home Depot.
Detectives were led to 50-year-old James Floyd, of Terrell, after investigators found his car with a flat tire abandoned at a gas station about a mile away from the Porters' home.
Floyd was arrested in Terrell, where police recovered the Porter's stolen SUV.
Floyd is in the Kaufman County jail, accused of an unrelated kidnapping in Dallas. Charges in the Fort Worth home invasion are expected to be filed soon.
Preuit said the family was grateful to Fort Worth police for finding the man believed to be responsible in the shooting so quickly, adding the random nature of the crime is hard to understand.
"There's pieces of it that baffle me," Preuit said. "I don't know how the man could walk a mile and choose this street – the very last street in the subdivision – turn down, and come to this house. I mean, that's what, I just don't understand that."
