Would-be robber bashes man in head with gun; victim sees his own blood on his shirt — and then it's on: 'It was him or me'

A good neighbor took it upon himself to question a man behaving suspiciously near his Louisiana home earlier this week — and the resident told WVUE-TV he quickly got bashed in the head with a gun for his inquisitiveness and was ordered to hand over his property.

The victim fought back, however, and won the day.

What are the details?

WVUE didn't identify the victim in its story, and the victim's face was hidden on video. He noted to the station that he saw the man in question walking behind his condominium in Venetian Isles around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. Venetian Isles is a neighborhood about 30 minutes northeast of New Orleans.

The victim told WVUE he saw the man again around 1:30 p.m.

“He was attempting to open the door,” the victim recalled to the station. “So I just walked up to him, and I said, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ He said, ‘What do you mean what’s up?’ I said, ‘I know you don’t live here. What’s up?’ Then he reached down in his waist and pulled out a 9 millimeter and struck me in the forehead with it and said, ‘This is what’s up.’”

The victim told WVUE the gunman ordered him to hand over his property, but the victim replied that he didn’t have anything — and with that, the gunman started hitting him some more.

“He hit me with the gun, and then I noticed I had blood all over my shirt," the victim recounted to the station. "He went to hit me again, and I put my hand out. When I put my hand out to block the gun, he hit my arm, and the gun went flying behind the garbage cans."

'It was him or me'

The victim's voice began to break as he spoke to the WVUE reporter about what happened next: "From that point on ... it was him or me."

The station said the victim lunged forward and grabbed the gunman, and the two began fighting.

"When I was dragging him across the lawn, he bit me on my chest," the victim recounted to WVUE. "So I took him down to the ground, and I got my hands around his throat."

The station said the victim choked the suspect unconscious, got up, grabbed the gun, and asked a neighbor to call 911.

The suspect — identified as Irvin Leferre — remained unconscious until police arrived and arrested him, WVUE reported.

Anything else?

The victim, his voice breaking again, added to the station that a bullet came out when he cleared the gun's chamber.

"He was sticking a loaded pistol in my forehead and [was] hitting me with it," the victim told WVUE. "Any movement with his finger, and he would've shot me in the face."

What's more, neighbors told the station Leferre earlier had broken into a nearby condo and spent hours inside it — cooking himself breakfast, ransacking the interior, and even changing his clothes.

"I was really in disbelief," the victim added to WVUE.