Father of 14-year-old Florida TikTok star shoots, allegedly kills stalker armed with shotgun

A retired police lieutenant allegedly shot and killed an 18-year-old teenager that stalked his daughter to their Florida home after he fired a shot through the family’s front door with a shotgun.

Ava Majury, 14, has over one million followers on TikTok, where she posts videos of her singing, dancing, and pulling pranks. The New York Times reported she began posting to the platform as a pandemic distraction, but quickly gained a following and begin landing small endorsement deals.

Ava was always a “go-getter,” her father Robert Majury, a 51-year-old retired New Jersey police lieutenant, told the New York Times. He recounted how Ava took a sticker her classmates liked and started selling them, making almost $700.

But her success came with a dark side. In early 2020, Ava began noticing one fan, Eric Rohan Justin, 18, had become obsessed with her. He was messaging her on Snapchat and Instagram, appearing in online games Ava played with her brothers, and even managed to get her cell phone number.

Her parents allowed Ava to sell Justin a couple selfies she had already posted to Snapchat.

The New York Times described how it escalated:

After that, Mr. Justin messaged Ava on Venmo with a breakdown of what he would pay for “booty pics” and photos of her feet, “stuff that a 14-year-old shouldn’t be sending,” she said. She blocked him on all her accounts. In Venmo messages viewed by The Times, Mr. Justin pleaded with her to unblock him, sending $159.18, then $100, and finally $368.50 with the message, “sorry this is all I have left i’m broke.”

Mr. Majury said he texted Mr. Justin’s cellphone, told him that Ava was a minor, and demanded that he stop contacting her.

Her parents did some research and discovered he lived hundreds of miles away in Ellicott City, Maryland, which reassured them nothing would come of the “keyboard cowboy.”

On July 10, 2020, Justin reportedly blew down the front door of the Majury’s home in Naples, Florida, with a shotgun blast. Ava fled to her brothers’ room as her father confronted the stalker, who fled to unjam his gun. Her father allegedly shot and killed Justin when he refused to drop his gun and pointed it at him instead.

Majury will not be charged under Florida’s “stand your ground law,” which allows use of deadly force for self-defense. Her parents defend her decisions to stay on social media.

Ava's mother, Kim, did not want her daughters forced off by “sick individuals.” She said, “Why should we allow them to stop her? Maybe he’s meant to bring awareness to all this,” she told the Times.

Her parents created a company to manage and represent Ava after she received a message on Venmo calling her a “baby girl” and offering to pay $1,000 a month for her phone number in August. Her parents discovered the man is on a sex offender registry, arrested previously for soliciting a 14-year-old girl.

The Chinese-owned TikTok is now the world’s most popular website and allows users as young as 13 to register. The New York Times reports that more than one-third of its 49 million daily users in the United States are 14 or younger.