He survived a gunshot to the stomach and today the District Attorney’s Office honored Ron Fletcher with a Citizens of Courage Award.
The La Jolla man became well known in 2013 for fighting back against an attacker who entered his home and turned out to be his estranged brother-in-law.
The shooter, Hans Petersen, found Fletcher getting out of the shower and told him he would shoot him on the count of three. Bullet holes in the bathroom door prove he wasn't bluffing.
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“I immediately thought of my girls in the back of the house and I’m trapped here. There’s a guy with a gun yelling at me through the door, kicking at the door, and I relocked it so I knew my only chance was to fight him,” Fletcher said.
Photos from the district attorney's office show Petersen brought an entire box of bullets.
Defense attorneys say he was drunk and high on prescription drugs and distraught over a recent divorce.
Fletcher tried to grab the gun, but as he twisted the attacker's arm he took a bullet to the stomach.
He kept fighting and hit the gunman in the face.
He knew he had to get to his cellphone to call police and protect his two girls.
“It was awesome,” he said. “They came around the corner, they had a gun, they didn’t shoot me. I was very thankful for that,” he joked.
Fletcher spent a month in the hospital and had to have a follow-up surgery
He says he has a new perspective on life. He also adopted a German Shepherd to protect his home.
Petersen is in prison with a 50-year sentence plus two life sentence. He shot and injured another man before heading to Fletcher’s house.
