Couple Survived Shots by Intruder : 45 Seconds of Terror Recalled

Virginia Petersen said she sensed something wrong as she stirred from her sleep early Tuesday morning. “I knew someone was standing there,” she recalled.

In fact, an armed intruder had slipped through an unlocked sliding door to the Northridge home where she and her husband, Christopher, had been sleeping. Her foreboding was the signal for perhaps 45 seconds of terror that shattered the stillness of their suburban home with gunfire and left each of the Petersens with wounds to their heads.

But the couple beat what police called “1,000-to-1 odds” by escaping fatal or crippling injury. They were released Wednesday morning from Northridge Hospital Medical Center, just 31 hours after surviving the attack that culminated in a chase through their blood-spattered home.

The couple’s 4-year-old daughter, sleeping in another bedroom, was not harmed.

Possible Link Probed

Los Angeles police are now investigating the possibility that the shootings may be linked to other predawn attacks in Glendale and the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys.

“You never really dream it would happen to you,” Virginia Petersen said. “I keep pinching myself and hoping it didn’t happen.”

The 27-year-old woman and her husband, 38, described the attack while recovering away from their home Wednesday evening. They asked that the location not be disclosed because they still are fearful of their assailant, who has not been captured.

Virginia Petersen said that, seconds after sensing someone in their bedroom, she saw the figure of a man about six feet tall. She said she began screaming and sat up in bed, but that the assailant pushed her down on the bed and pushed a pistol against her face.

She said she instinctively twisted her head as the man fired a single shot.

Exited Behind Ear

The bullet struck the side of her nose, passing through sinus passages and her cheek, exiting her head just behind her ear, police said.

Virginia Petersen said that, dazed and disbelieving, she made another instinctive move, this time to shield her husband from harm.

But the intruder fired another shot, striking her husband near his temple. The bullet was deflected downward, lodging in a fleshy area just below the neck, police said. Christopher Petersen said doctors told him the bullet will probably remain there for the rest of his life.

“I think he (the gunman) wanted us dead,” he said. “The doctors told us it was lucky for either one of us to be alive.”

Bullet Missed Him

But Petersen said he was able to spring from the bed and charge at the gunman, prompting another shot from the small-caliber handgun. The bullet missed Petersen and sailed through a window into the couple’s camper parked in the driveway.

The bleeding Petersen continued the chase through a hallway and into the living room. “I came at him and he fired again,” Christopher Petersen said. “I was coming at him and he knew it.”

But the fourth shot also missed.

Christopher Petersen said that he dropped to the floor in front of his daughter’s bedroom as the gunman ran for the sliding door, which leads to a patio on the side of the house. Petersen said he feigned having been downed by the last shot, lying in wait if the intruder returned.

“I got between him and my daughter, and he wasn’t getting any further,” he said. “I’m crazy about her and I love my wife very much.”

Daughter Was Awakened

When the man did not return immediately, the couple raced to their daughter’s room. She had been awakened by the shouting and shooting, but had remained in the room.

“The next thing I remember, I was outside,” Virginia Petersen said. “I was trying to take my daughter to a neighbor’s house.”

But her pounding on a neighbor’s door met with no response. The neighbor, an elderly man, said he did not hear the knocking.

Virginia Petersen, who also was bleeding heavily, then tried to call the police 911 emergency number. She said she doesn’t know whether she got the right number, only that she repeatedly gave her address and shouted, “I’ve been shot, I’ve been shot. My husband’s been shot.”

But her husband didn’t wait for police.

Passed by Ambulance

Minutes after the shooting, he helped put his wife in the back of the camper and put his daughter in the front seat. Then they speeded off to the Northridge hospital, passing the ambulance driving toward their home.

“I was thinking rationally about what I had to do next,” Christopher Petersen said. “I knew I had to go to the hospital, and we did it.”

The couple said that, a day later, they are explaining the shootings to their daughter.

“I didn’t want her to see all the blood. It’s hard to explain to her. We’re telling her that a very sick man came in to try to steal things,” Virginia Petersen said.

The Petersens said their lives will never be the same.

“Life is going to be very precious,” Virginia Petersen said. “There’s no time for arguments, just love.”

“We’re just trying to pick up the pieces,” Christopher Petersen said.