Hero teenager hid terrified rape victim in his home and fended off her crazed attacker with a knife as he tried to smash his way into house

James Persyn hurried his sister and brother into the bathroom after he let a desperate rape victim into his house as her attacker pursued her

Left to babysit his siblings as his father ran an errand and picked up his fiancee - James had to grab his own hunting knife for protection as Eric Ramsey tried to break in



A brave teenager armed only with a simple hunting knife faced down a rapist trying to break into his home last week, proving himself a hero to his younger brother and sister and the the man's victim.



Entrusted by his father to babysit while he ran an errand to the family business around 10 p.m., James Persyn, 14, was startled by the frantic screaming and banging of a woman at the front door of their Shepherd, Michigan home on Wednesday night.



Letting the desperate woman inside, five-foot-eight, 142-pound James rushed her, his 11-year-old sister and two-year-old brother into an upstairs bathroom before arming himself with his weapon, ready to defy the rapist who by now was screaming 'Let me in or I'll kill you.'

James Persyn III, 14, holds the knife he had on Wednesday night while posing for a picture with his sister Acelin Persyn, 11, at their Shepherd, Michigan home

'Her voice was, like, she was going to die if I didn't open that door,' said James about the terrified woman pounding on his door.



'A lot of people, maybe most people, would've been like, 'Get the hell off my porch.'

Despite this, James opened his door and as he did so, the woman charged in, ran to the kitchen and hid according to the Detroit Free Press.

'I let her in, and she asked me if my parents were home. I told her no. She said, 'We’ve got to hide. I was just kidnapped, and I’ve just jumped out of a vehicle. We’ve got to hide now.'

Eric Ramsey, 30, of Mt. Pleasant was paroled in July 2012 after being convicted of assaulting a police officer and destruction of property

The unidentified woman, a senior at Central Michigan University had been walking to her car in the school parking lot when Eric Ramsey, 30, an ex-convict approached her with a gun, forced her into her car and then took her to his mother's house and raped her.



Leaping from the vehicle as Ramsey was driving towards South Mission, the lady arrived at the Persyn residence covered in cuts and bruises and holding an arm she said was broken from the jump.



She said that she had seen the little house with its porch light in the darkness and ran straight towards it.



Just as suddenly as she had appeared though James looked out of the window and saw Ramsey driving up the long, winding driveway



The terrified teen locked the front door and ran to the side door to lock it too. He then shepherded his sister Acelin and brother Angus along with the female victim into the bathroom to hide.

Tiffany Ramon, 28 and James Persyn Snr., 36 pose for a photo outside of their home by their burnt siding

Fetching his hunting knife from his bedroom, James also grabbed the family Labrador and put him in the bathroom, all the while Ramsey was screaming 'Let me in or I'll kill you' as he tried top break-in.



Reaching for his cell phone, James told his dad, 'We need help right now. There's a man outside our door trying to get in, and I'm really afraid.'



But as their father rushed as fast as he could, Acelin continued to call for her brother.



'I wanted him to come in the bathtub with me and just hug each other and say good-bye,' she said.



'I didn't know what was going to happen, if we didn't make it, if he actually did make it in here and my dad didn't get home in time.'



However, Ramsey ceased trying to smash his way into the house and grabbed a can of gas from the vehicle, poured it around the base of the base, lit it and drove off.



Failing to set the house alight, Ramsey fled the scene just before James Snr. arrived home to save his children.



At the same time, a sheriff's deputy pulled up to the house and upon seeing the frantic flailing man trying to get into the house drew his gun.



'I'm the dad! I'm the dad!' James Jr. shouted.

Rampage: Eric Ramsey, 30, of central Michigan, 'abducted a college student at gunpoint, raped her, set fire to a house, stole a flatbed truck, rammed three police cars' before police shot him dead

The deputies interviewed the victim and the kids before the woman was taken away by ambulance.



Later that evening, the terrified Persyn family got word that Ramsey's rampage had ended nearby after he was shot dead by police officers.



But that was not before he updated his Facebook status after a night of horror in central Michigan after he abducted a female college student at gunpoint, raped her, attempted to set fire to a house, stole a flatbed truck and rammed three police cars on Wednesday.



‘Well folkes im about to get shot. Peace,’ read the message that the suspect Eric Ramsey, 30, posted to his Facebook page from his cell phone moments before he was shot to death by a sheriff's deputy.



‘I've been in this community for 35 years,’ Central Michigan University Police Chief Bill Yeagley told the Detroit Free Press. ‘I don't remember anything like this.’



Police say the rampage started around 9:30 p.m. last Wednesday as the student, a senior from the Grand Rapids area, walked to her Ford Escape, which was parked in a lot just outside of the Student Activities Center in the middle of CMU's Mt. Pleasant campus.



‘We don't know what possessed him to do that. We may never find out,’ said Isabella County Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski.



Mioduszewski said Ramsey drove the woman in her own vehicle to a home off campus and bound and raped her there.



He said Ramsey then put her back in the Ford Escape and pledged to kill her, but she escaped the moving vehicle and ran to a home yelling for help.

Bizarre: 'I've been in this community for 35 years,' Central Michigan University Police Chief Bill Yeagley told the Detroit Free Press. 'I don't remember anything like this.'

While the woman was inside the home talking to an emergency dispatcher on the phone, Ramsey ‘ended up pouring gasoline on the house and then lit on fire,’ Mioduszewski said in a statement.



A 14-year-old boy, his 11-year-old sister and 2-year-old brother were alone inside the home in nearby Lincoln Township when the woman banged on the door for help.



The teenager, James Persyn III, told Mlive.com that he let the woman in, locked the door and grabbed his hunting knife.



He said he while the woman was using his phone to call 911, he moved her, his siblings and the family dog into the bathroom.



Meanwhile, the sheriff said, ‘one of the homeowners arrived home ... and was able to put the fire out,’ using an extinguisher.



Ramsey was spotted early Thursday last week in Otsego County, where he rammed the first of two state police cars.



The sheriff said he subsequently stole a garbage truck and was fatally shot by a deputy in Crawford County, about 70 miles north of the university.



Campus police Chief Bill Yeagley said Ramsey told the woman that he chose her at random outside the Student Activity Center on campus.

The message: 'Well folkes im about to get shot. Peace,' read the message that he posted to his Facebook page moments before he was shot and killed by a sheriff's deputy

The chief said the woman saved her own life by fleeing from the car.



‘I believe she made all the right choices,’ Yeagley said. ‘She's the true hero in this.’



Central Michigan University President George Ross said the school would support the Grand Rapids-area woman and her family.



Ramsey had been on parole since last summer after serving the minimum five-year prison sentence for assault with intent to do great bodily harm, according to Corrections Department online records.



The maximum sentence was 15 years. Inmates are eligible for a parole review once they serve the minimum punishment.



‘The parole board generally doesn't give a rationale for why or why they don't parole (an inmate),’ said Russ Marlan, a Corrections Department spokesman.



‘I looked at his behavior in prison. He was pretty good. He had six misconducts over five years. That's a small amount. He was in minimum security the entire time.’



Ramsey had a job, regularly met with his parole officer and had tested negative for drugs, Marlan said.

