She said she offered to search her purse for something of value to hand over to the gunman — and slipped her gun into the purse, which she then handed to her husband.

“‘Is there anything in here we can give him?’” Russell said she asked. “Chuck said, 'Oh, yes, there is.’”

Holy shit. Journalists?

De Caro — a former investigative reporter, Special Forces member and military expert…

Russell — herself a licensed private investigator and former Fulton County, Georgia, sheriff’s deputy with two martial arts black belts…

Oh. Well, maybe they do still make them like they used to.

“Chuck fired back, and it was a shootout,” she said. “He expended the rounds from one small handgun and grabbed for the other even as he had taken fire” and was losing blood quickly.

“The guy went down, and he was history,” Russell said.

De Caro was hit three times, but the bullets didn’t strike any vital organs, Russell said. Authorities said he was expected to survive.