IN SHORT: Two intruders in ski masks menace residents in their Cabot home a couple of days before Christmas, shooting a man in the shoulder before fleeing on foot.
BY RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
At first, Marsha Bailer thought the two men in ski masks standing in the front room of her Cabot house telling her and her family to get down on the floor were jokesters.
“I looked at them real hard,” she said, “trying to figure out who they were.”
But it didn’t take long for Marsha Bailer to discover last Thursday’s home invasion was no joking matter.
One of the two intruders ended up shooting her husband, Michael, in the shoulder before fleeing on foot from the Bailer residence at 254 Gray-hawk Cove.
Marsha Bailer said she had just gotten home from work and she, Michael, and their 2-year-old son were sitting down to dinner when the two men barged in.
“Michael told them to take whatever they wanted, but to leave us alone,” Marsha Bailer said. “When they started to get out duct tape, Michael went berserk. He threw a kitchen chair at them and then picked up the coffee table and pushed them out of the house,” she explained.
Marsha Bailer said her husband also poked one of the suspects in the eye and grabbed the other by his belt and threw him off the porch.
While pushing the suspects out of the house, one of them fired a .25-caliber pistol five times. One of the bullets struck Michael Bailer in the left shoulder.
As Michael Bailer went after the suspects, Marsha Bailer scooped up their 2-year-old son and hid in a corner. When she heard the shots fired, she ran out the back door with her son, screaming 911, she said.
“Luckily,” she said, “a neighbor was taking his trash out and immediately called 911,” Marsha Bailer said.
Once outside, the suspects fled down the street, and Michael Bailer went to his truck to follow them and that’s when he noticed he had been shot. “I’m just so proud of him,” Marsha said. “But I’m still concerned that these men are still out there. I want everyone to be aware.”
The Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office is handling the case because the Bailer’s live just outside the city limits of Cabot.
The sheriff’s office brought out canines Tuesday but the dogs were unable to pick up any scent.
Sheriff’s investigators have confirmed that five shots were fired in the home and one went through the coffee table.
The bullet that struck Michael Bailer entered the front of his left shoulder and exited out the back. He was taken to Rebsamen Medical Center where he was treated and released.
The suspects are described as white males. One is about 6-feet tall with blonde hair and a mustache. The other was a few inches shorter. The pair had on ski masks, but one didn’t have it pulled down all the way, and were wearing gloves.
The Bailers have no idea why they were singled out.
Sgt. Ruth Baker, with the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office, said they have leads that they are working on, but would appreciate anyone with additional information to call the sheriff’s office at 676-3000.
