‘I’m firing!’: California grandma, 72, shoots intruder but misses

A 72-year-old Southern California grandmother who shot at — and narrowly  missed — a man trying to break into her home said Tuesday she was shocked at the  attention her action was getting but does not regret defending herself and her  husband, an 85-year-old World War II veteran who uses a wheelchair.

Jan Cooper, of Anaheim, fired one shot from her .357 Magnum Smith &  Wesson revolver around 12:30 a.m. Sunday as a man attempted to break into her  home. During a 911 call during the incident, Cooper can be heard begging with  the dispatcher to send deputies and warns that she has a gun at the ready as her  Rottweiler barks furiously in the background.

Minutes later, a breathless Cooper says the man has come to the back porch  and is trying to get in the house through a sliding door. Through the vertical  blinds, Cooper saw his silhouette just inches away through the glass as he began  to slide open the door.

“I’m firing!” Cooper shouts to the dispatcher as a loud band goes off.

Cooper then curses at the suspect, shouting at him to “back up.”

“You’d better get the police here. I don’t know whether I hit him or not.  I’m not sure. He’s standing at my door, my back door. He’s in my yard,” she  said.

The suspect, 31-year-old Brandon Alexander Perez, was not hit and was  arrested a short while later by responding deputies, who heard the gunshot, said  Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

Perez has pleaded not guilty to a burglary charge and has a court date later  this month. The Associated Press was unable to leave an after-hours message for  his attorney.

Perez had a rap sheet that included other burglary and narcotics charges and  was on parole and staying at a halfway house not far from the Coopers’ address,  Amormino said.

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