WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — A mother of three was lucky she wasn't seriously injured after being shot at seven times in her own neighborhood.
A father and his teen son were arrested after Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the two fired shots toward a woman they suspected of trying to burglarize their apartment home on Saturday.
The father-son duo faces multiple charges, including attempted murder, Judd said during a news conference. Until Saturday, they both had a clean record.
"I really thought I was going to die that day," Gladybel Caudill said.
Caudill says she knew she had to think fast in that moment. That quick thinking may have saved her life.
"They were firing in all directions. I almost didn't make it out of there," Caudill said.
The incident began at around 7 a.m. Saturday, the sheriff said, when a neighbor at the apartment complex on Cypress Gardens Road in Winter Haven received prescription medication delivered to the wrong address and walked it over to the correct apartment.
Upon sticking it to the door of his neighbor, Gino Colonacosta, he and his 15-year-old son received an alert from the Ring doorbell camera, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.
The two assumed their apartment was about to be broken into, according to Judd. That's when Judd said Colonacosta, 73, and his teen son armed themselves with .45 caliber handguns and went outside to search for the suspected burglar. The neighbor had already returned home.
Almost a football field away from their apartment, Colonacosta noticed a dark-colored car with dark windows. The engine was running and a woman was sitting in the car, Judd said.
In the next moment, authorities said Colonacosta, armed with a gun and his cane, pointed his firearm at her window and yelled for her to "get out of the car." In a panic, she reversed her car, striking another car in the parking lot.
The teen son heard the commotion and drew closer. Judd said the son thought the woman was trying to back into him so he began firing shots into the car. That's when the father started firing shots toward the car before the woman hit multiple cars in an attempt to speed away.
"I just parked my car after I got home from work and looked at my phone. I heard the guy saying, 'Get out of your vehicle now!' He was repeating that and when I looked at him I saw that he had a gun so I got very scared. That's when I tried to escape," Caudill said.
Deputies say the 15-year-old fired five shots when she tried to drive away, his dad fired twice.
"When a shot entered the car and hit my seat I really thought I was dead," Caudill said. "I was scared to look down."
The woman was not hit or injured during the gunfire. She made it to a nearby Circle K gas station on Cypress Gardens Boulevard and contacted the sheriff's office. Judd said that's when an investigation began.
"I was scared for this entire community," Caudill said. "On dispatch, I was trying to get them to come here to the complex because I left and they were here shooting."
At the same time, the father and son also returned to their apartment and notified law enforcement of what happened. The two were later arrested.
Colonacosta is charged with contributing to the delinquency or dependency of a child, possession of firearms by a minor under 18, conspiracy, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, attempted felony murder, culpable negligence, discharging a firearm in public or on residential property and improper exhibition of dangerous weapons or firearms.
His teen son is charged with possession of a firearm by a minor under 18, conspiracy, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, attempted felony murder, culpable negligence, discharging a firearm in public or on a residential property and improper exhibition of dangerous weapons or firearms.