Susan Gaylord Buxton, 66, said she's a good shot and could have killed the man because her gun instructors taught her well. Instead, she said, she aimed for his leg and fired a second shot to warn him as he hobbled off.

Clutching her gun, Buxton checked several closets, eventually opening one near the front door. She said she pulled a coat away and saw a man, then 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 coyotes. She said she keeps the .38-caliber handgun loaded with hollow-point bullets.

In a 911 recording obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Buxton is heard telling Lessner to lie on the floor before the first shot is fired. Before the second shot, Buxton said to her granddaughter, "Get the police out here or this is it for him."

She said to Lessner, who had retreated to the front yard:

"How dare you come into my house, you lousy (expletive). ... Shut up." A shot is fired.

"He got away, damn it," Buxton said on the 911 tape.