A nonagenarian farmer from Kentucky needed only a single shot to take down a man who tried to break into his Verona home.

"I aimed right for his heart," Earl Jones, a 92-year-old World War II vet and widower, told the Associated Press. "I didn't go to war for nothing. I have the right to carry a gun. That's what I told the police."

Jones fired his .22-caliber rifle at 24-year-old Lloyd "Adam" Maxwell, as he and two accomplices entered the house through the basement door. Jones, who had been a victim of three break-ins this year alone, was waiting for the three intruders in a chair across the room.

"Was I scared? Was I mad? Hell, no," he said. "It was simple. That man was going to take my life. He was hunting me. I was protecting myself."

The two perps left standing were kind enough to drag Maxwell's body out of the house. The Boone County Sheriff's Department later caught up with them and charged them with burglary and evidence tampering.

The mother of one of the suspects called the men "little boys" who became addicted to heroin. "We don't blame the gentleman for protecting what was his," said Lynn Inabnit. "We're not mad at him, but we're just sad our boys are gone."

[screengrab via Cincinnati]