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DENVER -- A Denver grandmother said she was out of options -- so she decided to shoot a man who burst into her apartment early Friday morning, December 4th.
Neighbors tell FOX31 Denver that the man lived at the apartment complex, but was drunk and trying to enter the wrong door at about 2:00 a.m.
The woman who actually lives in the apartment, who asked not to be identified, told FOX31 Denver that he tried to use his key to open her door and then began kicking and banging on the door in frustration.
“I said 'get away from my door. You have the wrong door. What do you want?’ That’s when he said 'open the (expletive) door. Why did you change the locks? This is my apartment,'" the woman said.
Crews worked to replace the woman's damaged door on Friday afternoon.
Shortly after the yelling began, the woman says she called 911 and grabbed her gun.
Moments later, he kicked his way in.
“Once he came in, once again I told him, ‘you have the wrong apartment. This is not your apartment.' He argued back with me -- 'this is my (expletive) apartment, what the (expletive) you doing in my house?!'" the woman said.
With her grandchildren in the back bedroom, she says she was left with no options.
“He came at me -- and that’s when I raised the gun to shoot," she said.
The first shot pierced her wall to the left of her doorway.
“When I fired the first shot, it was more like I was warning him to get out, and he didn’t. That’s when he began to come at me and that’s when I decided to let off the two shots and one of those, the third or second shot, hit him in the hand," the woman said.
After he was shot, the man fled.
Neighbors say he ran into a nearby building asking for help for an "injury."
After police arrived, neighbors say he admitted that he was drunk and tried to enter the wrong apartment.
“I wouldn’t want his death to be on my conscience like that -- and that’s what has me so upset," the woman said.
It’s not just his death that could have been on her conscience. All three bullets entered the apartment across the hall.
“I could have seriously injured my neighbors,” she said.
But that doesn’t mean she regrets pulling the trigger.
“I’m glad I did. I never thought I would have to use it, but things could happen at any time at any moment," the woman said.
Denver police say this incident remains under investigation -- and charges are pending.