NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - Nearly one week later, Tyrone Jones still has a mark on his face where he says he was pistol whipped the day he was robbed at gunpoint.
Police were called to Henry Clay Drive around 11:30 a.m. on April 18 for a report of a home invasion.
Jones tells News 3 he was getting ready to leave the house and his baby and the mother of his child were in the car waiting.
When he opened the front door to his home, Jones says, a 'dark-skinned' man appeared with a gun and pushed him back inside before calling in another suspect; a light-skinned man.
"I thought I was gonna die right then and there," said Jones.
Once inside, Jones says the two told him it was a robbery and they needed $500 before pushing the 54-year-old around his home at gunpoint; even striking him in the face with the gun at one point.
"[The dark-skinned man] took my belt off my pants and tied and wrapped it around my neck," said Jones. "I told him I only have $200, so he took my $200 in my wallet out of my pocket. I said, 'I got a couple hundred dollars in the bank,' so he told me if there’s no money in the bank or it was the wrong bank number they was going to kill me."
Jones says that's when the light-skinned suspect took off with his card to try and withdraw money while he and the dark-skinned suspect moved to the kitchen.
"I was on my knees begging, 'Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me'," he recalls. "When he sent [the light-skinned suspect] to the store, all that was in my mind was try to get him."
According to Jones, his moment came when the suspect went to put a paper towel roll around the gun to act as a silencer.
"That’s when I leaped from that chair on him," he said. "My left hand grabbed his hand like that, [he] fell down and I fell down on top of him."
Jones says he pinned the arm holding the gun against the floor before getting up and racing out the back door to his neighbor's house. That's when he said the suspect fled his home.
In total, Jones tells News 3 the robbers took $800, which included his electric bill money.
Both suspects are still on the loose and Jones says there was a third suspect driving the silver car the other two pulled up in.
Police released surveillance pictures and video of the light-skinned suspect. Investigators are asking anyone with information on the home invasion or the identity of the suspects to call the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.
