The incident happened just after 10 p.m. Wednesday, when Dallas police say the woman stopped for gas at a Shell station on Camp Wisdom Road.
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The mother, who does not want to be identified, left her children in the SUV while she ran inside the convenience store. Before she returned, a man jumped into her vehicle and tried to drive away, but the woman saw what was happening and jumped in the back seat.
The woman said she tried to get the man to stop but he refused. At that point she was able to open her glove box, pull out a gun, and shoot the man in the head.
"I should have just emptied the whole clip but I didn't. I didn't. I just wanted to give him a warning shot, that was it," she told KTVT-TV. "I'm not a killer or anything like that, but I do believe in defending what's mine."
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The man, later identified as Ricky Wright, crashed into a light pole and was taken to a hospital. He was said to be in serious but stable condition.
Wright has been charged with two counts of unlawful restraint and unauthorized use of motor vehicle. Court records show he has been arrested more than 20 times on a range of charges.
Police questioned the mother at the scene. She and her two children, ages two and four, were unharmed.