JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Shocking video shows the moment two armed men ran up behind a disabled Jacksonville woman and hold a gun to her head as she’s trying to enter her Southside condo.
Hearing her screams, Hilary Dean’s boyfriend rushes out, scaring the men off and possibly saving her life.
Dean said she’s traumatized and still quite shaken. This happened Wednesday night at Sonoma Southside Condominium Rentals.
The suspects are still on the loose, and she’s worried they’ll come back or hurt someone else, so she wants to warn others out there to be hyperaware of their surroundings.
Hilary Dean says the two masked men emerged from the shadows – one holding a gun to her head.
The 31-year-old said her children, on the other side of the door, listened to their mother beg for her life.
“He’s saying like, ‘Shut up, or I’m going to kill you.’ But all I knew was to get down on my knees and start screaming,” Dean said.
Dean’s boyfriend also heard her cries for help and came to the rescue, chasing the men off. Now, she can’t help but wonder what might have happened if he hadn’t been there?
She said they called the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office immediately. Officers searched the area with K9s for hours, with no luck.
“This is scary,” Dean said. “It’s not just scary for me. It’s scary for my kids. It’s scary for other peoples’ kids. For other women, for single women. This could happen to anybody.”
First Coast News Crime and Safety Expert Mark Baughman thinks the men look like experienced criminals based on the “brazen” way they approached Dean with masks and gloves on, but he said Dean did exactly what she should have to protect herself.
“She was very good in what she did – yelling, making noise, screaming. She knew she had a Ring camera there. She made it loud enough that somebody was going to come rescue, and they did, and that was highly important,” Baughman said.
For Dean, it’s one night she’ll never forget.
“We never know at any time what could happen,” Dean said. “What could’ve happened if my boyfriend wasn’t home to scare them off? What would happen to my kids? Anything could have happened. What if that gun would have went off and it would have hurt me.”
If you have any information about the suspects, you should call JSO’s Crime Tips line at 904-630-0500.