A tough, prepared and faithful grandmother is extremely grateful to be alive today, saying it was only the “grace of God” that saved her – and with a big assist from the gun she had stowed away in her truck.
Diane McIntire was armed spiritually, but also physically.
She says it was God who kept her calm, able to rationally think through the situation even though it was a life or death situation and one wrong move could spell the end.
“I have a family, I have a life. I want to live. I have grandchildren. My thought at that point was to live to see another day,” she told local news.
When the 61-year-old kidnapper Floyd May pulled a knife, McIntire knew she could turn the tables, she just had to be patient and wait for the right opportunity to spring a powerful surprise on the thug.
The incident began during a routine trip to the mall to pick up some everyday items while she was in town visiting family. Out of nowhere, a man brandishing a knife stood at the driver’s side door.
According to WQAD, she attempted to fend off the criminal:
“It was a large butcher knife, I did not even see it at first, that’s how quickly he was in my space. I kicked him in his chest, pushed him back, I felt the knife cut right below my elbow.”
May forced her to drive her truck for about 20 minutes, disposing of her mobile phone and making it impossible to call for help.
May seemed to have a bit of a conscience, apologizing for cutting her harm (a cut which required several stitches) and grabbing an old shirt to help stop the bleeding. But he also advised her that if the police approached, they would both die as a result.
At one point, she said, he asked her if she believed in God. He also seemed to know the gravity of the situation, admitting he knew she could identify him.
“I know it’s kidnapping,” he also told her, completely unaware that she was just keeping the conversation going while she looked for a good time to make her move. May had no clue that he was about to come face to face with a Glock 380 handgun that was waiting tantalizingly nearby in the center console of her vehicle.
The moment of reckoning came when the kidnapper told her to pull over into a gravel lot. She had no idea what his real intentions were, but she knew the longer this dragged on the greater the chance of something bad happening.
When they pulled over, May dropped the knife. It was in this moment she had to make a split second decision for her life – and she went for it:
“I knew I would live or die right there. He did tell me in the drive, if the police come up behind us, that we were both going to die that day,” she said.
So when May became distracted, she went for it.
“He got out of the truck and the butcher knife fell onto the ground and he got out to pick up the knife, I opened the console and grabbed my pistol. I went ahead and got out of the truck. I had the gun at his chest, and I told him do not come near me,” she recalled.
“I said, if you come near me, I’m going to shoot you.”
May took off running, and she went to the hospital, where she alerted police to what happened.
“My finger was already squeezing the trigger,” she said, warning May that if he came any closer she was going to put a bullet in him.
“The grace of God is what saved me, and the sense to have calm, and have my weapon, ” she said.
This story comes as some in Congress are calling for stricter gun control, while gun advocates will point to situations like this one, where if this grandmother did not have a gun the situation would’ve played out entirely differently.
“I didn’t want to take a human life if I didn’t have to,” she said, but also explained that she absolutely would’ve done it. “I would have shot him. There’s no doubt in my mind.”
Another key to surviving was keeping calm, despite being wounded and taken to a remote area. May had explained that he was recently released from prison and had been living under a bridge for several weeks.
Thank God for giving her the presence of mind to manage the situation calmly and effectively, waiting for the right time to turn the tables.