The father of TikTok star Ava Majury has spoken out about shooting dead her stalker, saying he did what he “had to do” to protect his family.
His 15-year-old daughter had been the target of a stalker who travelled from his home in Maryland to the Majurys’ home in Naples, Florida and shot open their front door at 4.30am last July.
Speaking to Good Morning America on Friday alongside his daughter and his wife, Rob Majury, a retired Jersey City police officer, explained: “Someone came to kill me. I was in fear for my family’s life and I had to do what I had to do to protect my family and I made sure of it.”
He later added: “There was no second guessing, there was no time to rethink my actions. I reacted. I acted as best as I could under the duress and stress I was put under.”
Ava first joined TikTok aged 13, and has more than 1 million followers across three social media sites she runs, attracting up to $150,000 from companies whose products she promotes on her platform.
Several months prior to the shooting, 18-year-old Eric Rohan Justin began messaging Ava, also contacting her former classmates reportedly asking for pictures and personal details about her, the Daily Mail reported.
Justin eventually obtained the TikTok star’s phone number and started texting and calling her asking her for selfies, offering to pay for them.
Her parents approved of this, after consideration, on the basis that images were already freely available on Instagram and Justin eventually handed over $300 for two photos.
However, he soon began requesting more explicit images, including “booty shots” and snaps of her feet, at which point Ms Majury blocked him from all of her social media accounts, prompting frantic apologies and a letter containing $500 and a note reading: “Sorry this is all I have left I’m broke.”
In July 2021, Justin travelled to the Majury’s home and what her parents had initially believed to be a ‘keyboard warrior’ became a real threat to their safety.
“I contacted him directly when Ava received a message, told him she’s a minor, he needs to stop pursuing anything and he should just not contact her anymore at which point it seemed that he was very apologetic ... never knowing he had this diabolical plan to show up,” Mr Majury said, adding that he didn’t think the man had a “means to act in any of these things”.
But Justin did travel to the family’s home, armed with a shotgun.
“When that sound went off we knew what it was. When we heard that loud boom ... I actually thought my daughter was dead,” Ava’s mother Kimberly Majury said.
It was at this point that Mr Majury said he grabbed for his own gun and fired at Justin. An investigation is ongoing although Mr Majury does not face any charges at this point and believes he will be protected by the state’s Stand Your ground law.
