A romance breakup became an armed standoff Wednesday evening as two brothers defended a Chattanooga woman from her gun-waving ex-boyfriend.
Lizzy Bookout, 18, told police that an intoxicated Ryan Anderson, 22, showed up at her house, saying he wanted to see her a final time before killing himself with a shotgun. Their relationship lasted about two years and recently broke up, she said.
“I think it was for show, maybe trying to get me back,” Bookout said. “I don’t know, but either way I didn’t want to take a chance.”
While at Bookout’s home at 6840 Robin Drive, Anderson bruised her and threw her to the ground, she said. About that time, she notified a family friend about the situation through an urgent text message.
When U.S. Marines Cpl. Daniel Wysong responded in another text, asking if she wanted her ex-boyfriend around, she typed back, “No hurry hurry quick.”
Wysong’s brother, Matthew, made it to the residence first, and he watched Anderson drive down the street, only to come back two minutes later.
Around that time, Daniel Wysong joined his brother and grabbed his .30-06 rifle as Anderson returned, pointing a shotgun out the driver’s side window.
It became “a matter of who shot first,” Daniel Wysong said, so the Iraq war veteran fired a warning shot “to let him know we meant business and throw him off.”
When Anderson refused to pull the gun back inside the car, Daniel Wysong said he fired a second shot through Anderson’s hand. Anderson sped away to Parkridge Hospital, where police said he may need surgery.
“Guns are like insurance,” Daniel Wysong said. “They’re good to have around in case you need them.”
Chattanooga police spokeswoman Sgt. Jerri Weary confirmed that Anderson will face three charges of aggravated assault upon his hospital release.
Bookout said she didn’t plan to visit him in the hospital.
“He needs to sit there and figure out what he’s done because he doesn’t remember it now,” she said, referring to her boyfriend’s drunken state.
Neither of the Wysongs nor Bookout was injured in the incident and no charges are expected to be filed against Daniel Wysong, Weary said.