"84-year-old man fends off intruder in Ridley Township"

Defensive gun use in Southeastern Pennsylvania

RIDLEY TOWNSHIP — Don Kaighn doesn’t want to be portrayed as a hero or a vigilante.

“I was just protecting myself,” said the 84-year-old, standing next to a dresser mirror that was shattered during what appeared to have been an all-out gunfight in the bedroom of his Franklin Avenue home.

A bullet also pierced a rifle case next to Kaighn’s bed during a violent home invasion Monday night. All around the bedroom and out into the hallway, investigators left behind numbered stickers indicating where bullet holes were found.

Kaighn, a World War II veteran and a longtime member of the National Rifle Association, said he was bruised and had pulled a muscle, but was not seriously injured.

“I got a little too much exercise trying to chase her out of the house,” the octogenarian said, maintaining a sense of humor after his difficult ordeal. . . .

Kaighn fled downstairs and dialed 911. The dispatcher told him to stay on the phone until police arrived.

“When you’re waiting, it seems like hours,” Kaighn said. . . .

Thanks to Gus Cotey for the story.