The Daily Express account of Zog returning fire

FEB 20 1931

The Daily Express reported that Zog drew a revolver from his belt and fired at his attackers, remarking on his coolness. This contemporary newspaper report is the traceable origin of the story that Zog is the only modern head of state to have shot back at his own assassins. It is a press account of 1931, not a corroborated finding. This is the honest position on the most famous Zog anecdote: it was reported at the time by at least one London newspaper, and popular retellings add that he was a poor shot and missed. English Wikipedia's account of the attack does not mention Zog firing at all. So the claim is contemporaneously reported but not independently confirmed, neither invention nor established fact.