EL DORADO, Ark. (AP) – An elderly man beaten unconscious by an assailant wielding a soda can awoke and shot the man during an attempted robbery, police said.

Willie Lee Hill, 93, told police he saw the robber while in his bedroom Wednesday night. Hill confronted the man and was struck at least 50 times, police said. He was knocked unconscious.

Covered in blood, Hill regained consciousness a short time later and pulled a .38-caliber handgun on his attacker. The suspect, Douglas B. Williams Jr., saw the gun and charged the man, who fired a bullet that struck Williams in the throat, police said.

When police arrived, officers said Williams told them, “I can’t feel my legs and I got what I deserved.”

Paramedics took Hill and Williams to the Medical Center of South Arkansas for treatment. Doctors sent Williams to the Louisiana State University Medical Center at Shreveport, where he was listed in critical condition Friday.

Police said Williams, 24, suffered at least temporary paralysis from the gunshot wound. Officers said Friday he would remain at the hospital indefinitely.

Hill, recovering Friday at the El Dorado hospital, said he would stay there through at least the early part of next week. After that, he said, he would spend some time in a nursing home to recuperate. Bruises covered his body, with four large gashes across his head.

“You can’t imagine what an experience it is with somebody on top of you trying to kill you,” Hill told The El Dorado News-Times. “I never had that happen to me.”

Hill said he keeps his handgun “always loaded” near his bed. He carried the weapon outside to his porch as he waited for police, unsure if Williams would remain down.

Williams’ first punch “hit me with all his might in the left side of my face,” Hill said. “My teeth don’t fit right now.”

Officers reported finding a set of keys, two hearing aids, a CD player, an MP3 player, a Craftsman drill bit set and three pocket knives inside Williams’ pockets. Police plan to charge him with residential burglary, second-degree battery, theft of property and theft by receiving.