SEATTLE — On Valentine's night, Yuttana Chanthakhoun and his girlfriend Chanh Saechao were unloading their car and about to grab their young children from the backseat when they say two men approached them with loaded guns and demanded they give up their belongings.
The attempted armed robbery happened outside the couple's home in Rainier Beach on Feb. 14 around 11 p.m.
"We pulled into our parking spot and just about to take the girls out of the car and that's when they approached us from behind, and they already had their guns drawn and pointed at us and demanded our belonging," Saechao said.
Chanthakhoun didn't think twice. He said he pulled out his own gun to protect himself and his family.
"When I saw that, I had to immediately take out mine," Chanthakhoun said. "I tried to reload the gun and by this time they were shooting at me. They were shooting at me."
A nearby auto body shop caught the exchange of gunfire on a surveillance camera.
"It's ridiculous, I can't believe it," said Phillip Nguyen, the owner of Rose Street Auto Repair. "On the video it's really bad, really bad crime around here."
Nguyen said crime has increased around his shop since the pandemic started. He has been broken into before and bullets have also gone through the backside of his business.
He said he doesn't feel very safe.
"Move out of this area, but it's my business but especially having a small business like ours," Nguyen said.
The gunfire happened right next to Chanthakhoun's kids. The oldest child is only 5 years old.
"One of them was crying and still too young to know what happened. The other is 5 and she saw everything and we just hope it won't affect her," said the couple.
Chanthakhoun is grateful to be alive. His family is focusing on helping him heal.
"It is sad because he did lose his dad early on at the same age of our oldest and it's crazy that she could have experienced the same thing that he did. We'd like to think that his dad protected him," Saechao said.
The family of Yuttana Chanthakhoun set up a GoFundMe to help him heal, recover and pay for medical bills while he is not able to work.