11-year-old Chris Gaither from Talladega, Alabama, has told reporters how an intruder "cried like a baby" after Chris shot him in the leg with a 9mm handgun.

Home school-student Chris was alone at his house on Wednesday morning when he heard footsteps; someone had broken in and was walking around upstairs, apparently intending to burgle the Gaither's home.

Chris took hold of a nearby gun and prepared to face the intruder, who started coming back down the stairs carrying a hamper.

“When he was coming down the stairs, that’s when he told me he was going to kill me, f-you and all that,” the boy told local news broadcaster WVTM.