Wife: Former CNN reporter shoots, kills armed robber at Westside motel

A former CNN investigative reporter shot and killed an armed robber in a motel on Albuquerque’s Westside late Tuesday, according to his wife.

Police responded to the Motel 6 at Iliff Road NW off Coors around 11:30 p.m. APD said they found a man dead in the parking lot with at least one gunshot wound.

Lynne Russell, also a former CNN anchor, told KOB she and her husband, Chuck de Caro, decided to stop at the motel for the night because they were tired after a long day of traveling and had their dog with them. When she went out to the car to get something and returned to the room, she said an armed man was at the door with a handgun.

“He pushed me into the room and that’s when my husband came out of the shower and saw what was happening,” she said. “We tried to calm him, confuse him and do everything we could do to just come out of it in one piece.”

When it became clear to Russell that the man may shoot them, she told him they would look in her purse for something. Russell said she and her husband have concealed carry licenses, and she had a gun inside her purse.

“He wound up taking my husband’s briefcase, and instead of just taking it and leaving, he took it and went over and started firing at my husband. And Chuck fired back and it was a shootout.”

Russell said the man was killed during the exchange. De Caro was struck by three rounds, but he was transported to a local hospital and is expected to survive.

“I am very, very proud of my husband. He is my hero,” Russell said. “He saved my life.”

De Caro is a former CNN investigative reporter and a consultant for the Pentagon.

Russell was an anchor for CNN Headline News and retired about 10 years ago. She was not hurt in the incident.

“Chuck de Caro is a former investigative reporter for CNN that specialized in military matters. He’s an ex-Green Beret; he’s a crack shot. These days, he works in information warfare consultant to the Pentagon, he’s also a former actor on the JAG TV series. Lynne Russell was the superstar anchor of CNN Headline News from its very start until a decade ago when she retired from CNN. She’s a private investigator, also a former sheriff’s deputy–she’s a crack shot herself,” said Pat Clawson, a friend of the couple.

Russell was a 1964 graduate of Manzano High School and lived in Albuquerque during her high school years. Her maiden name was Dunlop.

-With Elizabeth Reed; originally published at KOB.com