Nashville liquor store owner, 88, explains why she shot alleged shoplifter: 'I'm fed up'

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Nashville liquor store owner May Boyce, an 88-year-old widow who stands 5-foot-3 and weighs 115 pounds, according to reports, got “fed up” of her store being robbed so she shot an alleged shoplifter.

She told police she grabbed her late mother Mary’s .38 Smith & Wesson snub-nose revolver and shot a suspect who was trying to steal alcohol Tuesday, June 16, according to an affidavit obtained by McClatchy News Service.

She said she wasn’t aiming for the alleged thief -- but instead shot the suspect in the back.

“I never shot a gun before,” Boyce said. "But I guess it’s something that comes natural. I aimed at the floor to scare him.”

The elderly businesswoman works six days a week at the shop she’s owned since 1994.

“I’m a people person,” she said, “I like to work.”

Authorities said it might be two years before they give her back her confiscated gun.

“I told ’em, s–t, I might be dead by then,” Boyce said. “But the law’s the law.”