82-Year-Old Florida Man Kills Home Invader

Bristol, Florida

From the July 20, 2009 Tallahassee Democrat:

BRISTOL ­—Bradley Harvell, 82, closed the Slip N’ Slide bar that is connected to his house on County Road 333 around 8 p.m. Sunday and walked inside his house an hour later. He ate some dinner dropped off by a neighbor and then went to bed.

Harvell said a short time later, he heard a knock at the door.

“There were two knocks at my door,” Harvell said. “I didn’t get up when I heard the first one. But I decided to go see who it was on the second knock.”

As Harvell cracked the door open to take a peek outside, a man dressed in a black T-shirt, black jeans with a blue bandanna covering his mouth, forced his way inside.

Harvell said the man, later identified as Octavius Barnes, 24, of Sanford, Fla., shot him with a stun gun, causing Harvell to fall back on his bed. The intruder then pulled out what appeared to be a black pistol and demanded money.

Harvell pulled out his money clip and gave the robber half of the cash. When pressed to give more, Harvell said he turned it all over.

But Harvell then reached for his .357 magnum among a pile of papers on the floor next to his bed and shot Barnes near the stomach. Barnes fell over on the TV, knocking it onto Harvell, who fired another round, striking Barnes in the head.

“I did what I did to try and save myself,” Harvell said Monday afternoon, after spending the night with his sister in Bristol. “I’m 82-years-old. I’ve made it this far, and I want to keep on living.”

The call came in about 9:20 p.m., according to the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office. When a deputy arrived, with her weapon drawn, Harvell said he told her, “There’s no need for the gun. I don’t think he’s going to get up and do anything else.”