After his 80-year-old mother shot and killed a violent home intruder after he stabbed her husband Thursday night, this son wants everyone to know they’d better think twice about preying on the elderly. He also said he’s proud of his mom and doubts there will be any more intruders.

“They’ll come in, look at her and run the other way,” said the 45-year-old, who asked not to be named out of concern for his family’s privacy after they were victims of the home intrusion.

The son, who had gone to sleep early, said law-enforcement officers told him and his mother that the 25-year-old man who broke into their home was from Gold Bar and was known to them.

He said the man had been rifling around in his stepfather’s truck and had filled it with lawn tools he apparently intended to steal.

It appears the man was unable to hot-wire the truck, so he smashed the back kitchen window with a crow bar and forced his way through the back door, the son said.

“Then he stabbed my stepdad with a big knife, six inches long and two inches wide, ’cause he wanted the car keys,” he said. “My mom hears what’s going on, comes out and sees the guy standing over my stepdad, and there’s blood all over the floor and his guts are coming out.”

The man said his mother turned and ran through the center of the house and into her bedroom. She could hear the intruder’s footsteps right behind her, but he ran past her room, the son said.

“She grabbed her gun, comes out, shoots him four times and kills him,” the son said.

His mother is apparently a pretty good natural shot, he said, as she’s fired the weapon only once before, and three of the four bullets struck the attacker.

The intruder was pronounced dead at the scene, and the wounded 75-year-old was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, according to Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Shari Ireton. The woman’s husband is in serious condition in intensive care, said Harborview spokeswoman Susan Gregg.

The alleged intruder was identified as Steven N. Sheppard, who died from multiple gunshot wounds, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said the case will be forwarded to prosecutors and reviewed for possible charges as a matter of procedure once the investigation is complete.

“My mother doesn’t feel bad, and neither do I,” the son said. “He almost killed my stepdad. He got what he had coming.”