Home invasions can be a scary thing for a home owner without any protection. Especially when the assailant is armed.

Luckily for this couple they were well prepared. While at home at night a married couple encountered a couple of assailants who forced their way into the couples home.

Jeremy King said he was inside his home Wednesday when two masked men armed with guns barged in around 9:00pm. He said he doesn’t know who they are, never met them and has no idea why he was targeted.

Both men pointed guns at King while demanding money and assaulting him.

“I’ve got a fractured eye socket, a fractured sinus cavity, a concussion, 20 stitches and three staples in my head,” said King, outside his home on Old Welcome Road in Lithia. “I took a severe beating.”

“They came in heavily hooded and masked. As soon as they had got the back door opened, they had a pistol on me and was grabbing my 11-year-old daughter,” he said.

“I’m telling them, ‘I have nothing for you,’” King explained. “[A]nd they’re like, ‘Give me everything you got.’ It became real violent, real fast.”

King said one of the men started pistol-whipping him while another kicked him repeatedly in the head. His wife, who is eight months pregnant, was in the back bedroom and peeked out to see what was going on.

King said one of the men shot at her. She retreated, grabbed an AR-15 and returned fire.

“When he came toward the back door in her line of sight, she clipped him,” King said. “He made it from my back door to roughly 200 feet out in the front ditch before the AR did its thing.”

Deputies later found a man dead in a nearby ditch. The other gunman ran off after that fatal shot was fired.

“Them guys came in with two normal pistols and my AR stopped it,” King said. “[My wife] evened the playing field and kept them from killing me. “

Aviation and K9 units are searching for the other robber.

The male homeowner was transported to Tampa General Hospital and is in stable condition.

At this time, detectives do not believe this was a random attack.

“I would encourage if any of the neighbors see any suspicious vehicles or anybody walking around the neighborhood that they do not recognize to please call 911,” said Maj. Frank Losat with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

He also said neighbors should be on the lookout for unfamiliar vehicles parked in the area.

Investigators are still looking for the second gunman. ​