Hang on to your hats, folks, because this one is a doozy.

Melchisedec “Maya” Williams is legally blind, with no sight at all in his right eye due to glaucoma, and only limited vision remaining in his left eye.

He took in a troubled 15-year-old great-nephew who had been in and out of juvenile detention facilities because no other relatives would let the teen live with them after they boy’s mother went to prison.

Mr. Williams put a roof over his young relative’s head and food in his belly, but the teen seemed to resent his great-uncle for his charity, instead of being thankful for it.

Tensions rose to a breaking point when Mr. Williams—who says he is gay—told the teen’s mother that he overheard conversations between the boy and another young man which suggested to Williams the boy is also gay. The teen disappeared from Williams’s home… but Williams is convinced that the boy came back Sunday night to kill him for telling the boy’s mother about his suspected sexuality.

“All of a sudden my power go off,” said Melchisedec “Maya” Williams. “I’m like, ‘wait a minute, what is going on?’ Then I hear the footsteps come in the house.”

Williams grabbed his gun and headed toward the sound of the shattered glass. He could see a light and a shadowy figured and asked the person whether he was his great-nephew, but didn’t get an answer.

“So I just shot where the light was at and I heard him say, ‘ahhh!,’ Williams told FOX 13.

Police said the teenager had armed himself with a knife from Williams’ kitchen. Williams believes his great nephew had a friend with him who was also armed.

“Honestly I think they was coming in to try to kill me,” he said, adding he thinks the teen was angry at him and wanted to retaliate. “Cutting the power off to my house, arming themselves with two steak knives, that’s the only thing I could see that was coming to do, to do me bodily harm.”

Williams fired a single shot at the flashlight that was the only thing he could see in the darkened house.

The bullet hit the teen in the leg and pierced an artery. The boy stumbled outside and collapsed in the front yard of a neighbor. She called 911. The troubled teen lost a great deal of blood, but paramedics were able to  stop the bleeding and get him to a nearby hospital. He’s presently in serious condition, and is expected to recover.

The boy’s grandmother and Mr. Williams both hope that the near-death experience is enough to convince the boy to change his ways.

This would seem to be a clear-cut case of self-defense… but the case only gets stranger from here.

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You would think that the case would end with the teen being charged for attempted murder and Mr. Williams going free, but of course, life isn’t always that simple. Prosecutors are dithering over whether to charge the boy, while they are at the same time debating felony charges against Mr. Williams because of his own felony convictions 21 years ago.

The Tampa Bay Times is not identifying the teenager because no charges have been filed. But Williams’ role in the incident, and his history with law enforcement, could place him in a difficult position.

By law, Williams should not have been in possession of a gun. He has been convicted of grand theft and forgery and, in 1993, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison, state records show. Florida law bars felons from possessing guns unless their rights have been restored by the state’s Clemency Board, which Williams’ haven’t, according to a Department of Corrections official.

But there is disagreement about whether convicted felons can use guns to protect themselves under the state’s “stand your ground” self-defense law.

Last month, the Florida Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of a Palm Beach County man, a felon, who was charged with shooting a man outside a strip club in 2012. He claimed the shooting was self-defense. Both a trial and appellate court ruled he could not invoke a “stand your ground” defense because he was already a convicted felon in possession of a firearm at the time of the shooting.

But a different appellate court found in a separate case last year that there was at least one part of the “stand your ground” law that could apply even to felons.

Of course, this could get even more convoluted if the Williams’s great-nephew admits that the reason he attacked his great-uncle was because of homosexuality, which could presumably find the teen also brought up on hate crimes charges… whether or not the teen is gay himself.

So what we have here is a gay blind felon defending his life against an alleged gay teen relative/attempted murder suspect and a legal system that isn’t sure if or how to charge the older man due to ambiguities in the state’s much discussed “stand your ground” laws.

How would you like to be the local prosecutor on this one?