Hollywood · Javaris Granger wished his father was there instead of him.
His father was on the phone, urging Granger, 15, to get the gun they used for shooting practice. "Do what you have to do," his father said.
Granger did. He aimed the gun and fired at the violent intruder.
Family and friends are awed by Granger's bravery. "Anyone who takes charge like that is definitely a hero," said Maxine Chandler, his mother.
Before the McArthur High School freshman fired the gun, he kept a cool head and remembered his father's shooting and safety lessons during the chaos early Saturday morning.
His father, Lyndon Chandler, had left the house to visit a friend at the hospital. His wife heard a knock at the door and, thinking it was her husband, opened it. A stranger grabbed at her; she pulled free and slammed the door.
It was 3:30 a.m.
Granger woke with a start, hearing his mother's frantic voice and something slamming against the front window.
He ran out to the dark living room and saw his mother screaming as a man, cursing and muttering, threw a bicycle at the window.
Granger yelled at the intruder to leave, while his mother called his father on the phone and handed it to her son. The stranger began turning the doorknob, intent on getting in the home.
Within seconds, Granger ran into his parents' bedroom, found the safety box, unlocked it and loaded two guns for him and his mother. He ran back to the living room as the intruder threw a bicycle at the door and started kicking it in.
His mother was too shaken to take a gun, so she ran to another bedroom where her daughters and visiting family members were hiding.
"I was real scared and nervous, but I knew I had to stay focused on what I had to do because my mom and the kids were there," Granger said.
The next moment the man kicked down the door and jumped into the living room, yards from Granger.
"I didn't want to hurt anybody, so I fired off a warning shot," the ninth-grader said.
The intruder didn't leave until four shots later.
Since the incident, friends and family members have called to congratulate the modest teenager who didn't tell his story until news reports made it hard to hide. His three sisters call him brave, his dad is very proud of "the man of the house" and his mom says her family would have died if the man police later identified as Keil Jumper had laid hands on them.
Jumper, 22, is in Memorial Regional Medical Center with two gunshot wounds. He has a string of arrests dating to 2001, including one for attacking a Seminole Reservation Police Officer the day before he allegedly broke into Granger's home.
Granger does not face charges. The second oldest child in the family, he often goes to the range at Markham Park to practice shoot with his father. He was never a victim of crime before, but calmly went through all the gun safety steps his father taught him, even after one gun jammed after the first shot Saturday.
He even locked up the guns after Jumper left, before he checked on his mother. "My husband tried to get everyone to learn the safety of a gun," Chandler said. "It paid off."
Florida Teen Saves Family With Gun Training and Pistol
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Originally Posted by Crazed Rabbit
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