Ron Fletcher, a La Jolla resident who survived a gunshot wound to the stomach during an altercation at his home, was honored April 12 by District Attorney’s Office with a Citizens of Courage Award.
Fletcher became known in 2013 for fighting back against an attacker who entered his home and turned out to be Hans Petersen, his estranged brother-in-law.
Petersen found Fletcher getting out of the shower and told him he would shoot him on the count of three. Bullet holes in Fletcher’s bathroom door proved he wasn’t bluffing.
“I immediately thought of my girls in the back of the house,” Fletcher said, “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.”
Photos from the district attorney’s office show Petersen brought an entire box of bullets.
Defense attorneys say Petersen 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, getting 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, who shot and injured UCSD cancer researcher Steve Dowdy before heading to Fletcher’s house, is serving a 50-year sentence plus two life sentences. — 10 NEWS