Teen shot protecting family, her mom says

APALACHICOLA - A 19-year-old woman is being hailed as a hero by her mother, after being shot by her shotgun-toting stepfather as she scurried her mom and four younger siblings to safety.

Delores Marcum shooed the others out a window when the gunman became distracted as police surrounded their house Saturday, but he shot her before she could follow, her mother said.

Marcum remained hospitalized Thursday at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, and faces the possible amputation of a wounded leg.

"She always put herself before others," Marcum's mother, Rena Enfinger, told the News Herald of Panama City. "That's what she's done her whole life. She definitely is, she is a hero."

Police ended the standoff with Howard Enfinger, 69, in a burst of flash grenades and tear gas. He also was shot in the leg after firing at officers. He is in Bay Medical Center in Panama City.

Howard Enfinger emerged from a bedroom waving the shotgun after Marcum told her mother about alleged attacks by her stepfather seven years ago, Rena Enfinger said.

Someone called 911 before quickly hanging up about 11 p.m. Police responded and surrounded the house.

Rena Enfinger said her daughter's story of being attacked was news to her, but the violence was not. The woman, who works at a gas station, said her husband, unemployed on disability and often drunk, had held the family in persistent fear for years.

"There were times when I'd wake up and he'd be standing over me with a double-barreled shotgun to my head," she said. "He'd put the gun at the kids' necks."

Authorities said Howard Enfinger faces charges of attempted first-degree murder, possession of a sawed-off shotgun and two counts of kidnapping.

Rena Enfinger said Marcum was an honor student in high school and wants to go to college and become a dental hygienist.

[Last modified June 3, 2005, 01:15:23]