ARLINGTON -- Clutching her .38-caliber revolver, Susan Gaylord Buxton swung open each closet door of her northwest Arlington home early Wednesday, convinced that an intruder had broken a window and hidden inside.
Finally, as she yanked open the door to the closet near the front door, her light revealed a man's face peering from underneath a coat.
"Shh," he begged.
"Then he popped out of the door like a jack-in-the-box," Buxton recalled.
Buxton, 66, warned the man to lie on the floor or she'd shoot him.
Those final tense minutes played out as Buxton's granddaughter spoke to a 911 operator.
Buxton, heard cursing on the 911 tape, fired once more as the intruder tried to run, police said.
"Did she just shoot him again?" the operator asked the caller, Mandy Davis, 28. "Tell her to stop shooting. I have help on the way. She needs to stop shooting him."
Police would later identify the man as 22-year-old Christopher Lessner. Late Wednesday, he was being held under police guard at Harris Methodist Fort Worth, where he was being treated for a leg wound, said Christy Gilfour, Arlington police spokeswoman.
Once released from the hospital, Lessner will face charges of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, evading arrest, criminal mischief and criminal trespass, police said.
Buxton has a permit to carry a handgun. She will not be charged with a crime because she was defending herself, police said.
"If I didn't have a gun to protect myself, I probably wouldn't be here," Buxton said.
She said she obtained her permit after someone tried to kidnap another granddaughter 12 years ago.
"The instructors teach you to aim for the torso, but I aimed for his leg," she said, adding that she did not want to kill the intruder.
Lessner wound up in Buxton's sights after he fled from officers who had tried to ticket him for speeding at about 11:15 p.m. Tuesday on westbound Interstate 30 at Fielder Road, Gilfour said.
Lessner, driving a black Chevrolet pickup, turned north onto Fielder and into a neighborhood north of I-30. Officers said Lessner leapt from the moving truck on Parkcrest Terrace, just east of Randol Mill Park. Officers later learned that the truck had been reported stolen from Euless, Gilfour said.
Officers combed the neighborhood for a little more than an hour, and at some point, Lessner crossed into Buxton's neighborhood, south of I-30. Buxton let her dog out about 12:30 a.m. and noticed a muddy footprint on her back porch.
By that time, Davis was in the house. Buxton heard glass breaking and noticed that her cats were not in the room where they slept and that items in another room had been moved, police said. Buxton realized that someone was in her home, she said.
But where?
"He could have been in any of the downstairs closets or under the computer table," Buxton said. She told Davis to call 911.
Buxton yanked open the door of the closet where Lessner was hiding and pulled the coat away. She told him to get on the floor or she'd shoot.
He kept trying to grab the gun, but she fended him off, she said.
He fumbled with the front door with one hand and reached for the gun with the other.
She fired once, striking him in the leg.
Buxton heard him cry, "Ow, you shot me!" she said. The gun was the one she keeps to scare away the coyotes that wander the creek behind her two-story home.
In the 911 recording, Buxton is heard telling Lessner to lie on the floor before the first shot is fired.
Before the second shot, Buxton says to Davis, "Get the police out here or this is it for him."
She says to Lessner, who by now is in the front yard:
"How dare you come into my house, you lousy ... shut up." A shot is fired.
"He got away, damn it," Buxton says on the 911 tape.
Buxton is an artist who worked as a cartoonist for the Arlington Citizen-Journal and as a courtroom illustrator. She said she keeps the .38 loaded with hollow-point bullets.
Buxton said she's a good shot and could have killed Lessner because her gun instructors taught her well.
Instead, she said, she aimed for his leg.
Buxton said the second shot was a warning as he hobbled off.
Gilfour said that officers searching for the suspect heard a gunshot and that dispatchers directed them to the home of another 911 caller on Northaven Court, a cul-de-sac southwest of I-30 and Fielder Road.
"We found him a couple houses to the east, lying on a balcony," Gilfour said.
I guess this dumb perp tried to f*ck with the wrong Granny!
See! She didn't need no stinkin Glock either!
ma police, boston ma police, massachusetts police, massachusetts police, mass state police, mass police, ma, mass, massachusetts, massachusetts, massachutes, massachusetts law, massachusetts polece, police, officer, police officer, cops, police gear, law enforcement, police duty gear, state police, sheriff, law, police supply, police agency directory, police agency, police department, traffic officer, police dept, state trooper, dispatcher, massachusetts county sheriff, massachusetts sheriff, massachusetts department of corrections, ma doc, doc, dept of corrections, police information, civil service, ma civil service, massachusetts crime, police training, police academy, ma police academy, massachusetts officers, masscop, masscops, mpa, bpa, ibpoa, police association, massachusetts police news, massachusetts crime news, mass most wanted, police career information, police patrol, police administration, police books, crime scene training, police discussion, crime discussions, cops
About MassCops, the home for Massachusetts law enforcement.
The Massachusetts Law Enforcement Network opened in 1998 and is now a part of the New England Police Network The site is a pro-police discussion forum intended for sworn police officers and civilian law enforcement officials as well as those interested in pursuing a career in law enforcement here in Massachusetts.
The goal of The Massachusetts Law Enforcement Network is to provide an informal network of law enforcement officials here in Massachusetts for educational and informational purposes.
The forum covers many topics such as Police Related News Articles, Agency & Profession Discussions, Police Training as well as Law Enforcement Career Information.
The Massachusetts Law Enforcement Network and The New England Police Network (NEPN) and it's network sites are privately owned websites/domains and are not affiliated with or endorsed by any government association or agency.
MassCops (masscops.com) and (masscop.com) are privately owned are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Massachusetts Coalition of Police (masscop.org)
ma police, boston ma police, massachusetts police, massachusetts police, mass state police, mass police, ma, mass, massachusetts, massachusetts, massachutes, massachusetts law, massachusetts polece, police, officer, police officer, cops, police gear, law enforcement, police duty gear, state police, sheriff, law, police supply, police agency directory, police agency, police department, traffic officer, police dept, state trooper, dispatcher, massachusetts county sheriff, massachusetts sheriff, massachusetts department of corrections, ma doc, doc, dept of corrections, police information, civil service, ma civil service, massachusetts crime, police training, police academy, ma police academy, massachusetts officers, masscop, masscops, mpa, bpa, ibpoa, police association, massachusetts police news, massachusetts crime news, mass most wanted, police career information, police patrol, police administration, police books, crime scene training, police discussion, crime discussions, cops