A TRUE BELIEVER

Early Monday morning, May 10,1999, Elizabeth Magruder poured herself a cup of coffee, walked onto her patio and sat by the pool basking in the sun. It was one of the few truly peaceful moments she'd enjoyed in a year and would be the last peace she would enjoy for some time.

Magruder and her husband, Ronald, had moved to a gated community near Orlando, Fla., in July 1996. In the spring of 1998, Magruder hired Donald Cook, a gardener at the community country club, to do some landscaping work. Just after hiring Cook, Magruder had some misgivings about the short, muscular man. "He was just a little bit odd;' she recalled.

"At first, I had him planting bushes and laying stones. Then he would hang around, but not work. Soon he was following me all over the golf course and driving by my house at all hours;" Magruder said. Cook stalked Magruder from May to November 1998. The final straw came when Cook got on a tractor mower and chased Magruder and a club employee around the golf course.

"I left the club and Cook followed Magruder said. "I confronted him, and told him, `You have to stop. What you're doing is sick: He got very angry, and kept repeating `I'm not sick':' Magruder went to the police and had a restraining order issued against Cook, at which point his criminal record came to light. Cook had been charged as a sexual predator, and a trial date had been set. Upon hearing of Cook's record, the country club filed a "no trespassing" order against him.

At the suggestion of an officer Magruder had met when seeking the restraining order against Cook, she purchased a .38-cal. Taurus revolver at local gun shop in December 1998. 'An off duty police officer taught me the basics of gun safety and handling;' she said.

Magruder kept her revolver in her bedside table. Several months passed with no sign of her stalker. In May the Magruders planned a trip. The neighbors and their 6-year-old daughter agreed to come by daily and feed Magruder's cats, Willow and Granger. As a precaution, Magruder moved her gun to a high shelf in a closet, a move she says saved her life less than two weeks later.

As she sipped her coffee that morning, Magruder felt something come at her. She grabbed the cordless phone from the table. In an instant, Cook had grabbed her, forcing her through the sliding glass door and into the kitchen, startling her husband.

"Cook held me close, and was quite surprised to see my husband standing before us;' Magruder recalled. "Cook grabbed me tighter, then pulled a gun and pointed it in my husband's face, yelling `Who are you?"'

"For a split second he let go of me and I ran down the hall to get my gun. I remember screaming at my husband to call 9-1-1, forgetting that I had the phone in my hand. I could feel Cook bearing down on me;' Magruder said.

"I ran down the hall and reached blindly into the closet for my gun. Cook grabbed me by the neck trying to pull me away from the closet. He said, `Tell your husband not to call 9-1-1: "

"I pulled the gun out and turned;" she said. "It was right up against his chest, and I shot him:" The gun's recoil startled Magruder and it flew out of her hand. In fear for her life, Magruder ran back down the hall to get away.

"Cook returned fire, shooting me four times. I was shot in the stomach and arm, and my leg and head were grazed;' recalled Magruder.

"I ran to a neighbor's house, pounded on her door, no one answered. I heard the neighbor in the next yard yell, `What is going on?' I ran into her garage and collapsed. She approached me and I urged her to close the garage door. I didn't know if Cook was still after me or not."

Meanwhile, Magruder's husband had run to another neighbors house to call the police. A SWAT team discovered Cook lying on the Magruders' kitchen floor. Cook's gun, a .25 caliber semiauto, was recovered near his body. Detectives had also found rope and tape on his person, indicating he may have had plans to abduct or hold Magruder hostage. It was later determined Cook had run 39 feet chasing and shooting at Magruder after her bullet had pierced his lung and heart, before finally collapsing in the kitchen where he was pronounced dead.

Magruder, a tenacious little lady with a zest for life, was hanging on dearly to hers, though she was seriously injured.

"I was airlifted out to the hospital;" Magruder said. "I asked a medic if I was going to die and he said, `We don't know' I was in surgery for six hours, the bullet in my stomach had exited. The bullet in my arm entered at my wrist, breaking my arm, and traveled up into my upper arm. Another bullet grazed the circumference of my calf but never entered. The bullet in my stomach did a lot of damage, but unbelievably it didn't hit my spine." "When I was released, I returned to my house which surprised my neighbors;' Magruder said. "I told them I won't let him rob me of my home, or my life. I gave myself six weeks to feel sorry for myself and then moved on with my life."

A year has passed and Magruder is getting on with her life, enjoying golf again, and taking classes so she can obtain her right-to-carry permit. Asked how she feels about using lethal force to defend herself, Magruder replied, "I had no options but to defend myself. I had no choice. I wasn't thinking of killing him, just wanting him to stop. In the current legal climate, had he lived, he would probably be out on the street soon and after me again."

Magruder, originally from Canada, has become a true believer in the Second Amendment. "I moved here in 1980. Had I still lived in Canada when this occurred, Id be dead-or in jail-if I did have a gun to defend myself;' reflected Magruder.

"Until we can figure out how to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, we absolutely need the right to keep and bear arms to defend ourselves."