LEWISTON – Less than a week ago, Lucas Messer, 23, stood in his living room facing a man who aimed a gun at him and squeezed the trigger. In the bedroom, his brother was being beaten by another man with a crowbar.

What irritates Messer and Nicholas Herrick nearly as much as the home invasion itself is the way it has been presented by the media.

“They make it sound like we were helpless victims,” Messer said. “That’s not the way it happened.”

In fact, Messer overcame the man with the gun and wrestled with him until police arrived. Herrick, 27, eventually overpowered the man with the crowbar and chased him out of the apartment.

When it was over, the suspected gunman was arrested, and police have an idea who the second attacker is.

“We protected our household,” Messer said. “We did what we had to do.”

He also acknowledges that had the gun – a .22 which police say was aimed by 31-year-old Brian Paladino – not jammed, the situation might have ended in a much uglier fashion.

“He tried to shoot three people,” Messer said.

There were four people in the Elm Street apartment at around noon Monday when the drama began: Messer and Herrick were there with their girlfriends when two masked men burst through the door, crouching military style as they rushed in.

“The first guy came with the crowbar, and he plowed Nick into the bedroom,” Messer said. “The second guy, Paladino, came through the door with a gun. I thought it was a BB gun. I jumped up and grabbed my phone. I said, ‘What are you going to do with that?’ He started cocking the gun back and tried to pull the trigger. He said, ‘I’m going to kill all of you’ He tried to pull the trigger, but the gun jammed.”

Messer said Paladino then turned his attention to the pair of women in the apartment, aiming the gun at them and trying to shoot.

“That’s when I jumped him,” Messer said.

Meanwhile, in the bedroom, Herrick had received blows to the head that would later require several staples to close. But the blows did not disable him, and he fought with the man who wielded it.

“He was a big guy,” Herrick said. “He hit me twice with the crowbar, and he thought I was done. But I fought with him.”

Herrick and the larger man fought upright in the bedroom. The men crashed into an entertainment center which punched a hole in the wall.

Herrick said he was dizzy and bleeding from his wound, but he continued to battle with the bigger man. Then the fight was over.

“I got a little bit of his ski mask off,” Herrick said, “and he just bolted.”

The man who fled the apartment left the crowbar behind.

“That guy made a beeline for the door,” Messer said. “He didn’t even look at his buddy down on the couch.”

Police had been called but had not yet arrived. The man with the gun was still inside the apartment, fighting with Messer on the couch. He had fallen over a coffee table when Messer jumped him. The pair fought over the gun for several minutes, but Messer said he was able to keep the barrel of it jammed into the other man’s chest as they fought.

A shadow appeared over them. It was Herrick, who now had the crowbar and who began hitting the gunman with it. The gunman eventually fell to the floor, and the brothers kept him there.

“I ended up taking the gun from him,” Messer said.

They tore away the gunman’s mask. Herrick and Messer said they did not recognize him.

The brothers had the gunman pinned to the floor when police arrived. Paladino was arrested on charges of aggravated assault, criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, burglary and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Messer and Herrick believe attempted murder should be included in that list of charges.

“He was attempting to shoot,” Messer said, “not just threatening.”

On Friday night, Paladino remained at the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn on $10,000 bail. He had not yet made an initial court appearance.

Police have not named the second attacker but said they have leads to his identity.

Motive for the attack has not been disclosed by police. Messer believes the two men who burst into the apartment were after money. Messer and Herrick both work and save their earnings. The brothers believe the suspects meant to rob them.

“Their plan didn’t go through,” Messer said. “They didn’t get to shoot anybody, they didn’t get the money. Nothing.”

Herrick was taken to Central Maine Medical Center where the gashes on his scalp were closed with staples. He was discharged later in the day.

When it was over, Herrick, Messer and their girlfriends spent a couple days away from the apartment. When they went back and sat down on the couch, they found a .22 bullet beneath a cushion, rattled from the gun during the fight.

They turned the bullet over to police who are continuing to investigate the attack.

“Now we have to move,” said 18-year-old Kaitlin York, “because we don’t feel safe anymore.”

Messer said he and his brother did not like the early news accounts of the incident. It portrayed them as victims who cowered before the attackers.

“We just want to set the record straight,” he said. “We did everything we could possibly do to protect ourselves.”