KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- "This is my husband. That's the best part of me," Vickie Graves told WVLT, as she held a picture of her husband Billy. "That's the only part of me. And I've lost it."

Now a widow, Graves says after the tears comes the anger and determination.

She's ready to talk about what happened Saturday night when two masked men forced their way into her home at 9920 Washington Pike.

"We have a sensor on our driveway and I heard two buzzes," Graves explained.

That noise interrupted the couple's movie night.
They weren't expecting anyone, so Billy got up to see who it was.

"The door was jerked open and this guy just wrapped his arms around him," Graves said, recalling when the masked men burst in.

The first man grabbed Billy, the second waved a weapon.

"He had that gun pointed and he was hollering 'sit down, sit down,' " Graves told WVLT.

Next came a struggle. Billy went for a gun in the bedroom. That's when Vickie heard gunfire.

She says she had nothing to lose at that point, so she reached for another gun kept in the living room.

"I kept pulling the trigger and just pulling, pulling, pulling. I couldn't get the safety. I don't know. I hate guns."

She couldn't fire, but Vickie was able to get a look at that man's face.

"I reached up and I pulled his toboggan off and threw it in the floor and I also pulled his bandanna down, so I do know what he looks like," Graves said.

The suspects rushed out of there, quickly after that taking the safe they had come for.

Graves says she's not sure what they thought was in there, but they only got away with a coin collection.

"I just want them to know that they killed Bill for a quarter," Graves said through tears.

Graves says only about five people knew about that safe, so she can only imagine someone told those men where it was.

Investigators are working several leads, but if you have any information, please call (865) 215-2243.