Pastor wakes to find wife shot in her sleep, Georgia family says. She died days later
_fitted.png "Lashunda Heath-Ellison died Tuesday, Oct. 10, her husband said.")
A pastor woke in the middle of the night to find his wife shot in the head by a stray bullet, he said in a Facebook video.
Mac Ellison, a pastor at Temple of Faith Ministries, said he was asleep next to his wife, Lashunda Heath-Ellison, Wednesday, Oct. 5 when she was hit by the bullet, he said in the Facebook Live video. The bullet entered the couple’s Decatur, Georgia, home, went through the couple’s headboard, and hit Heath-Ellison in the back of the head while she slept, he said in the Oct. 9 video.
Heath-Ellison died Monday, Oct. 10, Ellison wrote in a Facebook post.
“My wife Lashunda Heath-Ellison gained her wings. I believe to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord,” her husband wrote. “Please give us a moment to process this. My Perfect Angel is gone but forever in our hearts.”
The Dekalb County Police Department said it is still investigating and has upgraded the case to a homicide. Officers responded to the shooting and confirmed to McClatchy News that Heath-Ellison was the victim.
Police say the projectile entered through the back of the home, striking Heath-Ellison while she slept.
Ellison said he was asleep when he heard his wife breathing heavily. At first, Ellison thought his wife was snoring, but he said he turned the lights on and saw something was wrong. That’s when he started calling for his kids.
The couple’s two children arrived and helped their dad call 911 and roll their mom over, Ellison said.
“When we rolled mama over so she could breathe, we saw that the back of her pillow was full of blood, but looking at her, we didn’t see any blood,” he said. “There was nothing we could do for mama.”
At the hospital, an X-ray revealed that Heath-Ellison had bullet shrapnel near her brain, according to Ellison. Once he and his children returned home from the hospital, they located a bullet hole on the outside of the home.
Heath-Ellison had just celebrated her 50th birthday, according to her husband.
“I asked my wife, I said ‘What do you want for your birthday?’ And she said, ‘I just want to be with you,’” Ellison said during his Facebook Live. “I’m trying to say all this without tears.”
This story was originally published October 11, 2022 at 11:10 AM with the headline "Pastor wakes to find wife shot in her sleep, Georgia family says. She died days later."
