william

Attorney at Law
Shot: July 15 1993
Doylestown Pennsylvania

If she eliminated me that would solve her problems

William: "I was at our farm chairing a Thursday morning men's bible study. I went from the bible study to my law office where I pulled into the parking lot. The next thing I know she pulled in behind me, blocking my car. As I stepped out of the car she was standing in a shooter's stance pointing a 38 at me. I found out later she had been stalking me and came to our farm that morning and then tailed me to the office. I had represented her father. He and she had asked me to help her; she had serious emotional and mental problems. Her father and I had urged her to get some mental health help. She would not agree. She had recently broken windows in his house and burned his clothes. I recommended he have her committed. I didn't realize he'd gone home and told her what my recommendation was. She stole his T.V. and VCR, hocked them, bought a gun, and took a shooting lesson. She stalked me, because she felt if she eliminated me that would solve her problems. She was diagnosed later as paranoid schizophrenic and delusional.

At that point she pulled the trigger

"That morning, as she pointed the gun at me, I asked her what the problem was. She said, 'What are you going to do about my health?' I had given her advice she didn't want to hear; she had fired me, even though I was working for her father. I said, `Well, not much I can do because you fired me.' At that point she pulled the trigger. The first bullet went over my head and the second went through my briefcase and punctured my lung, nicked my heart, took a small piece out of my left ventricle, and came within a human hair of killing me. I slumped to the ground and looked at the hole and knew I was dying; I was full of fear and anxiety. My partner came into the lot shortly after. As a former prosecutor I knew the dying declaration of a victim is admissible as evidence in a murder case; I identified to him who shot me. I said, `Tell my wife Connie I love her.' Then I started to pray. The minute I started to pray all the fear and anxiety and pain went away.

People don't give a damn about gun violence

"Within an hour I was on the operating table. They told my wife I had a sixty percent chance of not surviving. After three hours of surgery the surgeon walked out and said, `He's going to be alright, it's a miracle.' I think my life was spared for a purpose. Having been given my life back I've felt an obligation to speak out on these issues, which so many people aren't prepared to do. I think a lot of people don't give a damn about gun violence until it affects their own family. While it's true that you can't legislate morals and ethics and human behavior, and you're never going to get rid of the millions of guns in our society, it's also true that availability is the problem. Some gun owners continually say, `Guns don't kill people, people do.' And my response to that is guns are too available. They're available to kids, they're available to the elderly. Our society is proliferated with over two hundred and ten million guns. The woman who shot me is now in a mental institution. The local police department and her community knew about her. Had they been called by the gun dealer, or a registrar, they would have said don't sell her a gun."