A woman and her 3-month-old twins are alive thanks to the actions of her neighbor on Friday.

As Michelle Sorrells and her 12-year-old niece watched the twins at the home of Sorrells's mother in Ada, Okla., Leland Foster showed up at the home. Foster is the father of the children but had been estranged from the family since slapping one of the 3-month-olds a week before. Sorrells told Foster he was not welcome in the home and that he had to leave, but he would not listen.

"He turned around to leave and he was dead calm, so I turned my back on him to unlock the door," Sorells told The Ada News. "But, as soon as I opened the door he tackled me and forced his way into the house."

Sorells said Foster then grabbed the 3-month-old twins out of their playpen and went to the bathroom and threw the twins face down in a bathtub filled with water. When the 12-year-old tried to protect the children, he attacked her. When Sorrells tried to protect them all, he attacked her again. At one point he grabbed a knife from the kitchen and then started strangling her.

"He started choking me and [I] just started hitting him anywhere I could," Sorells told the publication. "I begged him to stop. I begged him not to hurt our babies."

Foster told Sorells that he was going to kill them all.

"‘You said it was too late. I can’t see them anymore so you’re all going to go,' that's what he said," Sorells told The Ada News. "He was dead calm. Dead calm. He just said, ‘It's too late for that now.'"

As the attack continued, the 12-year-old managed to escape the bathroom and run to a neighbor's house. The neighbor, Cash Freeman, grabbed a gun and went to the home. He arrived as Sorells was starting to lose consciousness.

Freeman then shot Foster twice, killing him.

When police arrived a short time later, the babies and Sorells were rushed to the hospital. Sorells sustained a series of fractures in her back and feet. The 3-month-old twins both suffered skull fractures.

"The babies are doing better," Sorrells told the paper. "My daughter has the more serious fracture. It actually caused a physical dent in her skull, but my son’s didn’t. They need to be seen again in six weeks, but the doctors said [if it has to happen], it’s good that it happened when they were so young and their skulls were still forming."

Sorells said she did everything she possibly could to protect her children but she credits Freeman with saving them all.

"If it wasn’t for him my babies and I would be dead," she told the paper.

The police have not recommended charges against Cash Freeman, but the district attorney will have ultimate say in whether or not he is charged.