Concealed Carry & Home Defense

California grandma fires Magnum revolver at home intruder, saves the day

Elizabeth Dorton Contributor
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A gun-toting 72 year-old grandmother fired her .357 Magnum revolver to defend herself and her husband from an intruder late Sunday night.

Jan Cooper told reporters Tuesday that she’s amazed at all attention her story is getting, the WCF Courier reports.

Before firing her weapon, Cooper heard the intruder outside. Knowing she had to protect herself and her husband — an 85-year-old WWII veteran confined to a wheelchair — Cooper called emergency services.

On the 911 call, Cooper can be heard asking for help while loudly warning the intruder that she has a gun and is very willing to use it.

A dog can also be heard barking in the background.

Cooper told 911 that she saw the intruder’s shadow through the blinds behind her sliding glass door as he was trying to open it.

As she fired the gun, she told the dispatcher, “I’m firing!”

She then tells the intruder to “Back up, you son of a bitch.”

Judging by the suspect’s height and the bullet hole found in the sliding glass door, deputies estimate that Cooper’s shot missed her intruder’s head by mere inches.

After the bullet missed, the intruder started to apologize, saying, “I’m sorry, ma’am. I’m leaving. Please don’t shoot.”

Cooper expressed her surprise at her immediate reaction to the break-in to the press on Tuesday, saying “I am a Christian woman and I’m very proud of it and I don’t curse, but after I shot, rage took hold and I just blasted away. And, in fact, afterwards my husband said, ‘I’ve never heard you talk like that!'”

The intruder, Brandon Alexander Perez, is a 31-year-old previously accused of burglary and crimes involving narcotics. He was living in a halfway house on parole at the time of the crime.

He was arrested shortly after the attempted break-in.

Perez will be in court later in June, and is pleading not guilty to a burglary charge.

When asked if he was taken aback by his wife’s ability to act quickly, her husband, Bob Cooper, expressed the utmost confidence in his wife.

“I’m not surprised at all, not one bit.”