Don't Mess With Texas

77-year-old Air Force Veteran Robert Hays was in a Texas City game room with his wife when two masked men burst into the room waving guns.

“I had my back to the whole thing, and the next thing I knew, somebody grabbed me by the collar, damn near lifted me in the air and threw me to the floor,” Hays said. “This guy was big. Visualize a professional football player lineman.”

The man went through Hays’ wallet and tossed it on Hays’ back, he said.

“He was walking around, waving that pistol,” Hays said. “I managed to slip my pistol out of its holster I had under my left arm. They wouldn’t let us raise our heads up, but I could see enough to tell his position.”

Hays aimed his .38-caliber revolver toward the center of the man’s back.

“At one point he walked over on our side, looked everybody over real good,” Hays said. “He turned, walking back to the other side and I shot. He went down.”

Hays' shot went into the shoulder of Tyreese Andre Ross, who dropped his gun and loot and fled, later to be arrested when he tried to get treatment at a hospital. Ross remains in jail, apparently unable to meet the $400,000 bond set for his release.

Don't mess with Texas. It should be obvious by now, but some people never learn.