Police in Bellingham say a 10-year-old boy may have saved his mother's life by shooting her attacker with his BB gun Tuesday morning.

A man renting a room from the woman had come home around 7 a.m. drunk, according to police. He was upset because the room was dirty.

"He kicked in the bedroom door of the victim and attacked her," said Bellingham Police Spokesperson Mark Young. "He at one point started to strangle her and this commotion woke the woman's son up."

Young said after pleading with the man to stop, the boy hit him in the head with a board. At that point, the man stopped assaulting the woman and ran after the boy.

"The suspect believed that the boy had run out of the house and when that happened the mom locked the door," he said. "The suspect then tried to gain entry through an open window."

When Paul Newman, 45, threatened to kill the woman and her son, the boy shot him in the face three to four times with his pump-action BB gun.

"I can only imagine what this young lad was going through in his mind," Young said. "But unfortunately he had to, in his estimation, defend himself and his mother."

Newman was brought to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. He faces felony assault and felony harassment charges.

Brandi Kruse, 97.3 KIRO FM