A 7-Eleven employee, who shot a man who was attempting to strangle her, was later fired for using her own gun while on shift in Oklahoma.

Stephanie Dilyard, 25, was forced to defend her life after a customer began to attack her when she refused to accept a fake $100 bill. She was later fired for defying company policy. 

‘This was a situation where I felt like I was put into a corner between choosing between my job, and my life, and I’m always going to choose my life because there’s people that depend on me,’ Dilyard told Fox 25. 

‘Just, I’m going, I’m going home, you know. I need to be here for my kids.’

The former 7-Eleven employee was attacked by a man, identified as 59-year-old Kenneth Thompson, who fled from the scene and called 911 after being injured by the gunshot. 

‘He threatened me, and said he was gonna slice my head off, and that’s when I tried to call the police,’ Dilyard recalled. 

‘He started throwing things at me, came behind the counter. I tried to run off, but he grabbed his hands around my neck, and pushed me out of the counter space, and that’s when I pulled out my gun and I shot him.’

On a GoFundMe created to help support her family, Dilyard wrote that Thompson also slammed her against a sandwich case before she shot him in the stomach. 

Stephanie Dilyard, 25, was forced to defend her life after a customer began to attack her after refusing to accept a fake $100 bill, but she was later fired to defying company policy

Dilyard said that she was fired for using her own gun, as company policy stipulates that employees may not carry their own self-defense weapons

The former 7-Eleven employee was attacked by a man, identified as 59-year-old Kenneth Thompson, who fled from the scene and called 911 after being injured by the gunshot

Oklahoma police confirmed to the outlet that her actions were defendable by the state’s self-defense law.

But her efforts to save her life were later punished by her former employer after she was told she violated company policy. 

Dilyard said that she was fired for using her own gun, as company policy stipulates that employees may not carry their own self-defense weapons, including mace or pepper spray. 

Former and current employees of the company claimed on Reddit that carrying your own weapon is punishable by termination. One user wrote that ‘incase of an emergency you’ll have to literally find the close object near you to protect yourself.’

Yet Dilyard, who had worked for the company for two years, felt she was left with no choice but to defend herself. 

On the GoFundMe Dilyard wrote: ‘As many already know, us overnight clerks are by ourselves. We have no security, and we are not allowed to carry self defense weapons, including mase.’

‘However, working conditions, it was not realistic for me to be able to follow policy AND be able to go home to my kids if a situation happened. That’s is why I decided to carry in the first place,’ she continued. 

Dilyard said she had been working from 11pm to 7am on her own for much of her employment. 

Dilyard said she felt she was forced to choose between her life or her job, but knew she had to get home to her children 

Thompson was later arrested at hospital and charged with assault and battery, threatening acts of violence, attempting to pass a fake bill, and a felony warrant for violating parole

Oklahoma police confirmed to the outlet that her actions were defendable by the state’s self-defense law

Her experience, she hopes, will help prevent other clerks from being seriously injured during a potential attack. 

‘If I’ve known that there’s a potential that somebody is for real on taking my life away that I will do whatever it takes, and I hope that women see that, and they’ll do the same thing. You have a right to defend yourself,’ she told the outlet. 

Thompson was later arrested at hospital and charged with assault and battery, threatening acts of violence, attempting to pass a fake bill, and a felony warrant for violating parole, Fox reports. 

‘I never expected for me to be in this situation, but I did what I had to do to go home to my kids. I was a good employee, committed and determined, but in-between a rock and a hard place I had to make a quick decision—lose my life, or lose my job,’ she wrote on the GoFundMe. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to 7-Eleven for comment.