AURORA, Colo.-
An amputee who discovered a burlgar inside his home Tuesday was shot after he fought him off with his crutch.
Roger Baxter is expected to survive after a cell phone apparently slowed the bullet that hit his chest.
“I just got it programmed,” he lamented as he told his story to television stations at a restaurant where he had a bacon cheesburger.
Baxter lost his right leg after being hit by a tractor-trailer in October. He was returning from getting a haircut when he discovered the man with a gun inside his house.
“He was pointing it at me and I told him to take and get the gun out of my face,” he told KDVR-TV. “He kept coming toward me and he got within 5 foot of me and that’s when I hauled off and hit him with one of my crutches.”
Aurora police spokesman Robert Friel said Baxter was wounded in the upper torso after the bullet hit the cell phone. Two suspects were arrested shortly afterward. Their names have not been released.
“It’s not my time,” said the Vietnam veteran who served two tours. “I went head to head against a semi back in October and today I went up against a 9 mm and I’m here. I’m just a tough old bird.”
Deb Baxter, Baxter’s wife, arrived just after the shooting and said her husband was trying to stand up an call 911.
“I thought it was pretty low of him to try to rob a disabled person,” Roger Baxter told KUSA-TV.
