The 15-year old TikTok star and her family have revealed how she was targeted by an obsessed fan last year. The man showed up at their home, firing shots towards them before killing himself when they refused to let him into the house as he had done previously in order to hold out against police officers waiting outside with gun is drawn until backup arrived on the scene. Ava Majury joined TikTok in 2020 when she was 13. She now has more than one million followers spread over three accounts that she runs.
Her videos are entertaining and engaging, often containing pranks with friends or family. Last July an 18-year-old stalker called Eric Rohan Justin tracked her down in Naples after buying personal information from several people who knew about their relationship online; he showed up at the family’s home armed with a handgun but missed when trying to fire through their front door because his weapon jammed.
‘All I remember was, I heard it, I felt it in my chest, and I looked up, and there was a hole in my door from the fragments,’ Ava told The New York Times in an article.
Ava’s brothers cowered in their parent’s bedroom while she herself entered into a state of terrified confusion. Her retired cop father Robert grabbed his weapon and headed to the front doorstep before returning after hiding for just one moment when he shot dead Eric who had come back home unexpectedly from school – never charged because it would have been considered legal under Florida Stand Your Ground laws (which allow people not only protect themselves but also take down potential attackers).
Robert retired from law enforcement and moved to Florida, where he met Ava on TikTok. He began commenting under the username EricJustin111 while contacting old friends in New Jersey who still had contact information for him before moving away from that area code years ago because it was too noisy with traffic noise into an isolated town full of palm trees near Lake Okeechobee.
Ava’s parents then allowed her to sell selfies directly with the man. They said it was innocent, but when he started asking for more explicit content- like pictures or videos of herself naked on Instagram- Robert contacted him and reminded that Ava is only 16 years old; however, this didn’t stop Justin from contacting other friends who are all adults and threatening them if they didn’t post something negative about their lives too.
Ava, her mother, and her two brothers ran to the back of the house and Robert ran for his weapon. Eric then retreated, his gun jammed, giving Robert time to get to the front of the house. When he got there, Eric reappeared and he shot and killed him before police had arrived. Justin’s father told the Times that he chose to stay in America rather than move to India with him after his parents divorced and that he had no idea he was stalking Ava.
The police report however says: ‘The subject was most likely a stalker that resulted from her daughter’s extensive social media involvement.’ The family has now moved but is still living in Florida and Ava continues to sell videos on TikTok to brands, and post videos of herself dancing.
On the day of the shooting, Ava posted a TikTok where she lip-synced to a remix of the French Montana song Unforgettable.
‘Goodnight. You are loved,’ she captioned the image.
Her father said that it would have been too difficult to take her off the platform now and that she shouldn’t have to give it up.
‘It’s like Christmas every day because then you see it build. I think we just had to allow her to make a decision and sort of support her. I think it’s going to help her heal. It sounds corny, but I don’t know what else you would do it for.’
‘Why should we allow them to stop her? Maybe she’s meant to bring awareness to all this,’ her mother said.