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Don’t judge a book by its cover — or you might end up beaten by a small elderly woman. Lorenza Marrujo, also known as Lady Ninja, is 67 years old, 4-foot-11, and weighs about 100 pounds. She’s also a martial arts master. When a drunk intruder broke into her third-floor apartment at her senior living complex, he had no idea what a mistake he was making.
Elderly Woman Fights Off Intruder With Martial Arts
Marrujo has a black belt in jiu jitsu and 26 years of training. But Donald Robert Prestwood didn’t know this. He works as a handyman for some of the residents. But last October, the 59-year-old barged into Marrujo’s apartment, seemingly intoxicated, and tried to grab her. She seized a yellow baseball bat and said, “Back off or I will have to hurt you.”
He backed away when she pulled out the bat. “I was aiming at his head, and he backed off and said, ‘No Miss Kitty, no Miss Kitty, I’m not gonna hurt you,‘” Marruja said. “And I said, ‘Get the F out of my apartment right now.” [1]
Then Prestwood ran off. He went into the first-floor apartment of Marrujo’s good friend, 81-year-old Elizabeth McCray, who requires a wheelchair. Marrujo heard her scream and came to help. However, she forgot her bat but all she needed was her martial arts skills. She found him standing over McCray, beating her, all the lights out in the room. She tried to trip Prestwood but ended up on the floor while he used his legs to pin McCray down.
“I had to bend his fingers back… to get him off her,” Marrujo said. Keep in mind, according to jail records, Prestwood is listed as 5-feet-10 and 170 pounds. “He was screaming because that’s one of my techniques — the bent fingers. Then I went ‘boom’ with my elbow twice in his sternum.” [2]
Then she stayed on Prestwood’s chest to keep him down until the police came to arrest him. “My knee was on his chest, my other knee was on his throat, I had his jaw, and I was aiming for his eye,” Marrujo said.
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“You had no right to hurt an elderly person”
At one point, Prestwood said she was hurting him but she didn’t back down. “He lifted up and tried to twist my hand, but at the same time, I twisted his and turned it around real fast and he was saying, ‘You’re hurting me, you’re hurting me,’” Marrujo explained. “And I said, ‘I don’t care. I don’t care what happens to you. You had no right to hurt an elderly person.’” [3]
Before she had arrived to rescue her friend, McCray said Prestwood had grabbed her, shook her, and she fell to the floor. Marrujo had called the cops and arrived to save her just in time. “Jesus was here and gave her power,” McCray said. “I wouldn’t think a little lady would have the power to do this.”
McCray was taken to the hospital for her injuries but she was released the next day. “I didn’t expect that little lady would be that brave,” McCray said of her friend. “I said, ‘Could you be careful, he’s gonna kill us.’ She said, ‘Not tonight.'” Marrujo said it was fortunate for Prestwood she had forgotten her bat and had to use her martial arts skills; otherwise she would have busted his kneecaps.
But Don’t Confront Intruders
Meanwhile Prestwood was arrested on the suspicion of elder abuse and was imprisoned on $150,000 bail. The police praised Marrujo for her bravery but they warn others against confronting intruders who could be armed. She could have gotten injured or worse. They added that he could have used her bat to attack her. So although Marrujo got the upper hand, her case is more of an exception to what is generally not a good idea.
“We recommend that you dial 911 for emergency assistance, which, in this case, she did, and she also jumped in,” said Jennie Venzor, spokesperson for the police department. “What she told me is that her training kicked in, and it was like a muscle memory. She knew she had to help her friend out.” [4]
Keep Reading: This guy was a mafia boss stealing $8M a WEEK. Then he became a Christian and walked away from the life. Hear his crazy story.
Sources
- “Woman, 67, fights off intruder who attacked 82-year-old neighbor at Fontana apartment.” KTLA. Jennifer McGraw. October 1, 2020
- “Elderly woman known as ‘Lady Ninja’ takes down intruder using jujitsu attack.” New York Post. Joshua Rhett Miller. October 1, 2020
- “’You Have No Right To Hurt An Elderly Person’: 67-Year-Old Fontana Woman Takes Down Intruder.” CBS News. September 30, 2020
- “67-year-old woman uses decades of martial arts experience to fight off intruder.” ABC News. October 1, 2020