An armed stalker in Los Altos Hills (CA) apparently thought he was going to break into his victim’s home and murder her. One of the male residents of the home ballistically persuaded him that this was a very bad idea.

Authorities have identified a Georgia man who was wounded in a home shootout after he broke in and attacked a woman he was reportedly stalking, only to be sent away by her relative who returned fire.

William Brady III, 43, remains at a local hospital and is expected to survive multiple gunshot wounds he sustained in the Friday confrontation on Oak Knoll Circle, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office. Brady was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and is expected to be booked into jail once he is released from the hospital.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, the encounter occurred sometime around 11 a.m. Friday when Brady walked up to the Los Altos Hills home and appeared to be armed with a handgun. A woman inside called 911 to report Brady’s appearance at the home — where she was staying with relatives — and said he had been stalking her.

She was still on the phone with emergency dispatchers when Brady reportedly forced his way inside the home and started shooting at the woman and at least two other residents, the Sheriff’s Office said. A male resident armed himself when Brady was approaching and fired back, hitting him several times and forcing Brady to flee.

Responding deputies, joined by a SWAT team and an armored vehicle borrowed from Sunnyvale police, approached the home and soon found a wounded Brady outside, and he was taken to the hospital, the Sheriff’s Office said. A handgun thought to belong to Brady was also recovered.

No one inside the residence was injured, and the man who shot Brady was not expected to be charged with any crime. A law-enforcement source told this newspaper that the shooting by the resident is being treated as a case of self-defense.

In the end, restraining orders are nothing but a piece of paper.

The only thing that will onsistently stop a stalker, abuser, predator or criminal intent on seriously harming his (or her) victim with a weapon, is a firearm in the hands of the person being attacked, or as luck would have it in this instance, a relative in the same home.

You are responsibly for your self-defense, and the defense of those whom you love.

Take control of your life, and refuse to be a victim.