ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It was an ordinary Thursday night in late March for Anissa Tinnin and her 4-year-old granddaughter.

“We had the music up a little loud and we were having a good time dancing and singing when everything changed suddenly,” Tinnin said.

They were home alone and just about ready for bedtime when a man let himself in through a side door.

“I heard something fall, and I turned around – I could see the silhouette of a person bent over picking something up,” she said.

It was a fight or flight moment.

“I jumped over the couch, he came towards me, I went towards him,” Tinnin said. “He saw her, threatened to hurt myself and her, and told me to get my keys to him.”

She led him away, somehow finding a moment to secretly dial 911. They both ended up in the kitchen.

“We came in here, I set my granddaughter down here in a safe area,” Tinnin said. “And then, this is where we have our dish of keys. And so he was just rifling through everything. I’m standing here trying to negotiate with him to get him outside.”

After a few moments, the man runs out and tries to take off in one of their cars. That’s when the panic sets in.

Tinnin: I need police, I need police here now.

911 operator: What’s going on?

Tinnin: A guy came into my house, tried to take my car, please help me.

But even with police on the line, she was still on her own.

“I knew that I needed to get my granddaughter and myself to a safe location and get my firearm just in case,” Tinnin said.

They went to her bedroom and she grabbed her gun and put her granddaughter out of sight.

When the car didn’t start, the invader went looking for a way back inside – this time with force.

“The next thing I remember is him coming around the corner, coming at me, and we’re, I mean, I’m walking toward him, he’s walking fast toward me,” Tinnin said. “I warned him several times to get back, told him I had a gun.”

Then, she fired.

“When you’re that close to somebody and you shoot him, you hear things that don’t leave your head,” Tinnin said.

She said it took police six minutes to arrive on scene, while she tried to save the man’s life.

“I did get him water, I got him a towel, put some pressure on his wound,” she said. “He is not a good person. He has made a lot of bad choices in his life, but he still is a human being.”

The whole incident only lasted 14 minutes.

“The aftermath has been devastating, you never think that you will ever have to shoot another human in your life,” Tinnin said.

She said she’s in trauma therapy but her family is more concerned about her granddaughter.

“She’s four years old,” Tinnin said. “It’s just so sad to see her like, she now knows what a bad guy is right? She’s not just playing bad guy with her friends. She actually understands what a bad guy is.”

Albuquerque police identified the invader as Joseph Rivera, a man with a lengthy criminal history including numerous drug charges and reported carjackings.

“I think the most frustrating part is learning about his history and knowing that this could have been prevented, that’s the most frustrating part,” Tinnin said.

Court documents reveal Rivera was wanted for a carjacking last summer. APD officers reportedly found him in another stolen vehicle the night of the invasion and tried to arrest him before he crashed near Tinnin’s home. She questions why he was ever out of jail in the first place.

“I know a lot of victims out there that have lost loved ones, lost their children, bury their children to senseless gun violence by criminals, and they still can’t make change in the state,” she said. “We have to start asking ourselves, where is the problem?”

Rivera appeared in court last week after he recovered from his injuries. A judge ordered him to stay in jail before his trial, giving Tinnin and her family a chance to breathe.

“My family is strong, I have a good support system,” she said. “I will be OK. It’s going to take some time.”