An elderly Florida woman said she fired a warning shot after an intruder who barged into her home on Sunday afternoon and refused to leave, before ultimately shooting him. The man was pronounced dead at the hospital.
On Sunday, deputies with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office responded to the 70-year-old woman’s home for a “burglary in progress”, near Brentwood Street and Farrell Avenue, and found a man, later identified as 38-year-old Ezequiel Rosario-Torres, with a gunshot injury.
“He stepped in, and I turned around, and I said ‘who the hell are you? What do you want?’ Nothing. This guy never said a word the whole time he was here,” said Virginia Morrison, 70, who lives at the home with her partner.
In a Monday interview with FOX 35 News, Morrison said she attempted to hit the intruder with a broom, but he would swat it away. She said her partner went to get his gun and fired a warning shot, but the intruder refused to leave.
Morrison said she retrieved her gun and went to the background, where the man allegedly walked toward her.
“He started coming toward me and I fired a shot above him. ‘Back off dude!’” Morrison said, “and he just kept coming toward me. So I just lowered my gun and shot him.”
“I didn’t realize I hit him but once I looked, he had a hole in his t-shirt and I thought I got him,” she said.
Deputies transported Rosario-Torres to the hospital where he died.
“I didn’t know what he was going to do, but I knew I was going to protect myself. I’m a fighter. I’m going to defend myself,” Morrison said.
Morrison added that the shooting itself has weighed on her since Sunday.
“I have feelings,” she said. I have God in my life. That’s my main thing, wondering if God’s going to forgive me for taking a life. It bothers me.”
This case will be sent to the State Attorney’s Office, where it will be determined whether charges should be filed, the sheriff’s office said.
