An armed robber chose the wrong couple to rob at an Albuquerque Motel 6 Tuesday night, and  it cost him his life.

Former CNN and Headline News anchor Lynne Russell and her husband, former CNN reporter Chuck de Caro, were involved in a fatal shooting at an Albuquerque, New Mexico, motel, police told NBC News on Wednesday.

Albuquerque police said Russell was accosted by a man about 11:35 p.m. Tuesday (1:35 a.m. ET Wednesday) in the parking lot of a Motel 6 and was pushed into her room.

De Caro — a former investigative reporter, Special Forces member and military expert — and the man then got into an altercation, and both were shot, police said.

The assailant was unresponsive when officers arrived and died at a hospital, while de Caro was wounded and was being treated at a hospital Wednesday.

The robber pushed his way into the hotel room and pointed a gun at Russell and De Caro just as de Caro stepped out of the shower.

While the robber was distracted by de Caro, Russell slipped the couple’s concealed weapons into her purse, and then handed it to de Caro, asking if he could find something of value to give to the robber.

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

Russell said the man took de Caro’s briefcase over to the bed of the motel room and began firing at her husband.

“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 robber died quickly. de Caro took three hits from a .40 S&W, but none hit vital organs, and he is expected to survive. Accuracy matters.

Neither Russell nor anyone other hotel guests were injured in the exchange of gunfire.

The shooting is being investigated, but is presumed to be yet another legitimate case of armed self defense.

Both De Caro and Russell have concealed carry permits and are described as “crack shots.”