Cassandra asked her husband for a divorce. The conversation ended with her on the floor, shot five times, watching him point the gun at her head. He pulled the trigger. The bullet missed and hit the floor. She heard a voice telling her to get up and run.
"All I thought is if I get to that door, I could have a shot at living," she said.
Cassandra's account of the attack, her survival, and the decision that followed is a story of violence and the strange obligations that survive it. She said her husband pulled out a gun and shot her five times while her children tried to escape. The attack began in the kitchen, where she and her son were cooking.
"My son was cooking. Before he pulled out the gun, it was in his back waist, so we didn't see the gun," she said.
A neighbour noticed something wrong and rushed into the house. "He's never done this, but he bust in my front door," she recalled. The neighbour confronted her husband and tried to stop what was happening. "He looked at my husband and said, 'I can't let you do this.'" Her husband ordered the neighbour to leave. The neighbour refused.
Cassandra said her husband then pulled out the gun and pointed it at her son. She reacted immediately. "I pushed my son hard out the way, so he fell on the floor." The first bullet struck her arm. As the neighbour tried to get her oldest son out of the house, her other children were caught in the middle of the chaos.
She recalled seeing her middle son trying to help her after she was shot again. "He comes and tries to put his arms under me so he can pull me to him." She told him to leave her and run. "I hit my son's leg and told him to leave me right here and just get out the house." Her husband fired again but missed her son, who escaped by jumping out of a window.
With her youngest son still nearby, Cassandra begged him to run. "The man who I loved is standing over me as I'm laying on the floor with a gun," she recalled. Her husband fired again, hitting her for the fifth time. Her youngest son managed to escape, leaving her alone with the gunman.
She looked at her husband and said: "I never thought you would do me like this." He pointed the gun at her head and pulled the trigger. The bullet missed. She ran out of the house while he continued shooting, but none of the bullets hit her. "I hear my son say, 'Mama, run. He's still coming,'" she recalled.
Neighbours rushed to help her. She was taken to the hospital and later transferred by Life Flight to a trauma unit, where doctors treated her injuries. She survived because the bullets missed major organs.
While she was recovering, another decision awaited her. Her husband had attempted to take his own life after the shooting and was placed on life support. As his next of kin, she was faced with the choice of whether to continue it.
After she was discharged from the hospital, Cassandra went to see him. She held his hand, prayed for him, and asked God to help her forgive him. "I prayed for God to forgive him for what he had just done. I prayed for God to help me to forgive him as well," she said.
Doctors told her there was no brain activity. She signed the paperwork to remove him from life support and stayed until he was made comfortable. She also wanted his family to have the chance to say goodbye. "I wanted his family to put him away," she said. She allowed his family to make arrangements for his funeral while she continued healing from the attack.
"I learned the lesson about forgiveness," she said.
According to Pulse.ng.
