Refused a kiss, 92-year-old woman fires gun

Helen Staudinger, 92, wanted a kiss, and authorities say she wouldn't take no for an answer.

The central Florida woman fired a semi-automatic pistol four times at her 53-year-old neighbour's house after he refused to kiss her, police said on Tuesday.

"If my head would have been over just a little bit further, (a bullet) probably would have hit me in the back of the head," the neighbour, Dwight Bettner, told Reuters.

Staudinger was in jail on Tuesday, a day after being arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and shooting into a dwelling.

According to a police report, Staudinger told deputies she went to Bettner's house in Fort McCoy, Florida, and refused to leave until he gave her a kiss.

When he said no, they argued and she left angry, the report said. Bettner said he was on the phone with his father moments later when he heard gunshots. One bullet went through a window, spraying him with glass.

The former law enforcement officer said his elderly neighbour had seemed attracted to him since he moved in six months ago.

"I've taken her trash out for her, just neighborly stuff," Bettner said. "I guess she just took that as something else."