TikTok star Ava Majury is speaking out about an alleged stalker who drove from Maryland to her family’s home in Naples, Florida. Majury’s father, retired police lieutenant Rob Majury, shot and killed Eric Rohan Justin, 18, who carried a shotgun and blew open the Majurys’ front door. Majury, 15, became a TikTok star during the pandemic, and now has over 1.2 million followers on the platform and thousands more on Instagram.
Although the July 10, 2021 shooting was reported at the time by local media, Majury spoke out for the first time in interviews with The New York Times and Today to raise awareness of the darker side of social media fame. Justin of Ellicott City, Maryland arrived at the Majurys’ home with a shotgun. Rob chased him away but tripped. Rob told Collier County sheriff’s officers he went back for his handgun and stood at their front door. Justin returned, and Rob shot the suspected gunman. No one was arrested after the shooting.
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Majury began getting messages from Justin in early 2020 and learned that some of her friends from New Jersey and Florida were selling her personal information to him. Justin even obtained Majury’s cell number and called her. In one instance, Justin did math homework for one of Majury’s classmates in exchange for information about her, her family told the New York Times. “I had to unfollow all my local friends and Jersey friends,” she told the Times. “And everyone around me was like, ‘Oh you’re going Hollywood on all of us, you don’t want to talk to us anymore.’ And I’m like, ‘You’re selling my stuff.’”
Majury’s parents allowed her to sell two selfies to Justin, but both were photos she previously posted to Snapchat. Neither of the pictures showed her body, Majury said. Justin paid about $300 for both photos using Venmo. After that, Justin began asking for explicit photos, so she blocked him from all of her accounts. In Venmo messages the Times saw, Justin began sending her hundreds of dollars to convince her to unblock him. At that point, Rob stepped in and told Justin to stop contacting his daughter. After that, Justin began sending more threatening messages, which Rob dismissed at the time, especially after they learned Justin lived hundreds of miles away.
The shooting is still under investigation, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office told Today. Meanwhile, the Majury’s have moved to a new house and her parents are homeschooling her. There is “more security on our end, more reviews of accounts, more checking in – just trying to be normal for Ava,” Rob told Today.
Majury is still posting on social media, a decision her parents have defended. “Even afterward people said why would you allow this to continue?” Rob said. “It became such a part of her personality and her being to take it away could maybe harm her more.”
Since her interviews were published, Majury has faced backlash, which she responded to on Saturday. She noted that her parents did not know Justin was a “stalker or a threat to our safety until he flew from MD to FL in July 2021 and tried to murder my family.” She later added, “My family has suffered so much from this ordeal. I hope this sets the record straight and people resist the temptation to blame victims.”
