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Ava Majury is a 15-year-old TikToker whose father shot and killed her alleged stalker in July 2021.
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Last month, Majury testified against a second man she said was stalking her. The case was dropped.
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Majury’s attorney told Insider she wants to stay on social media to warn others about online threats.
In 2021, Florida, 15-year-old TikToker Ava Majury made headlines when her father shot and killed a man she said stalked her after he showed up at their front door. A year later, on March 28, 2022, Majury testified against a second person she accused of harassing and stalking her online.
Majury, who has 1.2 million TikTok followers, said she was “terrified” of the second person she accused of stalking her, who went to the same school as her and who she said often followed her. The case was dropped by the court on the day of the hearing.
The case, and the events leading up to it, have been widely reported, following the 15-year-old’s journey from the teenage TikTok star to the alleged stalking victim. Despite her tumultuous years as an influencer, Majury said she has no intention of quitting social media.
Here’s a timeline of Majury’s career and legal battles over the years.
The TikToker started making videos in 2020 when she was 13 years old
Majury moved from New Jersey to Naples, Florida in 2019 with her parents and two brothers, according to The New York Times.
She joined TikTok in April 2020 and was best known for dancing and lip syncing – one of the earliest popular formats on the app. The Times reported that she gained one million TikTok followers within a year, 75% of which were male.
In a February 2022 interview, Majury told Elizabeth Williamson of The Times that she could earn about $1,000 for a single paid promotional video on her main account. According to Majury’s managers, she also posts under two other accounts. None of the three profiles has been verified by TikTok as being owned by Majury, but a representative from her law firm confirmed to Insider that they were owned by her.
Majury started posting to Instagram in August 2020 and gained 130,000 followers within a month according to analytics tracker SocialBlade. Majury now has 327,000 Instagram followers. This account has also not been verified by Instagram, but her, a representative of Majury’s legal team, confirmed to Insider that this account was also hers.
In July 2021, Majury’s father shot and killed a man who came to their home
Lanny J Davis, legal counsel to the Majury family, told Insider that in early 2021 TikToker noticed that a person with the username EricJustin111 messaged her on Snapchat and Instagram. Davis said she would reply to him every now and then, as she did with other fans.
According to an Instagram statement uploaded to an account under Majury’s name in February 2022, after a few months, the person started “bullying” her online, so she sent him “2 to 3” Snapchat photos for $5 each in an time frame of a month because she thought this would put an end to the harassment. She said he then asked for explicit images, so she blocked him.
The Majury family told The Times that the fan, who has since been identified as Eric Rohan Justin and was 18 at the time, flew from his home in Elliot City, Maryland, to Majury’s Florida address on July 10, 2021. They also said he had a shotgun.
Police did not release any details about the incident at the time. The Times reported in February 2022 that Justin “arrived with a shotgun at the Majury family’s Naples home and blew open the front door. His gun jammed; Ava’s father, Rob Majury, a retired police lieutenant, chased him away but fell.”
Rob told the Collier County Sheriff’s Office that he decided to stand guard at the front door, and when Justin returned, he shot him dead, according to The Times.
Rob Majury was not charged with the shooting of Justin because his actions were deemed to fall under Florida’s “Stand your ground” law, passed in 2005. It states that: “A person has the right to use or threaten to use deadly force if he or she reasonably believes that the use or threat of such force is necessary to inflict imminent death or serious bodily harm.” self or to another.”
A 2020 US Civil Rights Commission report on the law found that similar legislation, sometimes referred to as a “castle doctrine,” has been passed in at least 22 other states and remains controversial. The Florida statute came under particular criticism in 2013 when George Zimmerman was found not guilty of murder after he fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin (though the law itself was responsible for his acquittal, it is disputed).
As previously reported by Insider, Majury continued to post on TikTok the day after the shooting, before taking a five-day break from uploading.
Majury said she was also being stalked by another person who went to her school
In their interview with The Times, Ava’s parents said they had pulled Majury, now 15, out of school over concerns about a second person she accused of stalking her, who they say was communicating with Justin around the time of the shooting.
In December 2021, Majury told her parents that the person had started watching and following her. Davis told Insider that the unnamed minor posted a video to his Snapchat account, which Majury was able to watch, in which he fired a gun at a shooting range. Davis said the video made Majury “frightened” and that she decided to drop out of school.
The Majury family filed a petition with Collier County Court to obtain a stalking injunction, and a hearing was held on Feb. 28, 2022, according to Fox News.
Majury’s case against the second person was dismissed in court on March 28, 2022
Majury’s hearing took place on March 28, and the 15-year-old testified against the person she accused of stalking, saying she was “terrified” because he was “always behind” or near her during the fall semester at school. , Fox News reported.
According to Fox News, Majury testified that she believed the person was in conversation with Justin before his death. She said she sometimes asked the second person to send her information about Justin. She added that he sent her screenshots of his conversations with Justin, one of which featured a grape emoji in a message from Justin that read “I want [emoji] her bro.” She said the emoji is sometimes used by young people to mean “rape.”
The person’s attorney claimed there was no reason for stalking because he voluntarily communicated with Majury at her request, according to Fox News. At the end of the hearing, the judge dismissed the case.
Davis, who was in court at the hearing, told Insider the Majury family has no intention of taking any further legal action.
Majury wants to keep posting on social media
Davis told Insider that Majury’s main TikTok account, which had 1.2 million followers, had been temporarily suspended by TikTok for about two weeks, but the reasons were unclear. TikTok did not respond to Insider’s request for comment, but the account was reinstated on April 4.
Davis told Insider that Majury doesn’t want the Justin experience to “beat her down,” and will continue to post on her platform with permission from her parents, who he says “support their daughter in her belief to be a role model for clean and positive use of social media.”
In a statement to Insider, Majury said she was sharing her story “so that young people and parents are also aware of the dangers of social media.”
She added: “I could never have imagined that my innocent messages would lead to a stranger with a shotgun showing up to my front door. I urge young people and parents to immediately report any threat or sign of violence And don’t wait until it’s too late.”
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