Carolann Miracle is 4 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs 85 pounds. She’s a petite woman who seems like an easy target, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“I was scared, at first. I thought, ‘Am I really getting robbed?’” Miracle told ABC15.
Miracle said she was leaving the Circle K near 59th Avenue and Camelback Road with her family early Monday morning when the suspect, Frank Taylor, tried to bum a cigarette. She told him that she didn’t have one, and then seconds later, Miracle said, she could feel the barrel of the gun against her skin.
“He put the gun up to my neck and said, ‘It’s loaded, don’t move,’” Miracle said. ”I think he thought, ‘She’s a little girl. Maybe she doesn’t know how to use her weapon.’”
Miracle said, “I dropped my soda, released my gun from my holster and cocked it. I shot him and ran in the opposite direction."
There were people in the parking lot and she didn’t know whether they were accomplices in the holdup. So, she ran home to call 911.
Miracle, who became emotional when she later returned to the gas station, said that she is struggling with what happened and will for some time.
“I feel bad, I didn’t mean to kill him. I feel bad for his mom. I feel bad because I just found out that he has a 1-week-old baby. I didn’t mean to do it, but I had to protect myself,” Miracle said.
The case has been handed over to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. They will determine whether Miracle will be charged, which is standard procedure in these types of cases.
