A wheelchair-bound but hardly defenceless Harlem granny is being sued for $5m after popping a .357 Magnum cap into an alleged mugger, the New York Post reports.

Margaret Johnson, 59, described as "a retired city bus driver who has a dislocated hip and a ruptured disc", was sitting in her motorised mobility scooter in September 2006 when Deron Johnson, 48, "tried to snatch her purse and gold chain".

This turned out to be a bad move, since Ms Johnson's grandfather was Harlem crime boss Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson, a no-messing-about character who once battled with fellow gangster Dutch Shultz for control of the Harlem numbers racket.

She said of grandpa, immortalised as Bumpy Jonas in the 1971 blaxploitation classic Shaft: "He raised me like his daughter. I wanted to be just like Daddy. It made me a strong woman."

To prove the point, she shot the would-be robber in his left elbow, and he was quickly detained by cops. He was acquitted at trial, however, after claiming in his defence that he'd simply kicked his alleged victim's Shih Tzu, (named Malika, for the record), after it attacked him - an act of self-defence which provoked granny to whip out her piece.

Mr Johnson is, as is the local custom, now suing granny and her apartment block landlord for the aforementioned five million bucks. His lawyer, Craig Davidowitz, claims he's "suffered permanent nerve damage from the shooting".

The landlord, meanwhile, is being taken to task for allowing Dirty Harriet to roam free with her personal arsenal of crime-busting firepower. He demanded: "What's grandma doing walking the streets with a loaded gun? They should have known they had a tenant walking around with a loaded weapon."

Margaret Johnson, though, is having none of it. She sensationally explained to the New York Post: "I'm a peaceful person. I wish that I had killed him. I didn't think you had to pay to get mugged in New York City."

She stressed: "I'm not spending a dime on that son-of-a-bitch. This boils my blood. Why is he picking on me again?"

The New York Post notes that grandma has a penchant for firearms and "once owned an Uzi submachine gun". She said of her current weapon of choice, the .357 Magnum: "I love that gun. It's so powerful. I don't know too many women who can handle that gun. I almost fell on my butt when I first fired it." ®

Bootnote

Just to further demonstrate what a very bad idea it was for Deron Johnson to mess with Margaret, the New York Post has a snap of her proudly posing with her Uzi.

And yes, we know Dirty Harry carried a .44 Magnum, but we reckon it's unreasonable to expect a wheelchair-confined 59-year-old to handle that kind of firepower.