Police say a woman survived a shooting by pretending to be dead after a gun was fired at her head earlier this month.
The gunman, her ex-husband, allegedly killed another woman in the room who confronted him.
The victim, 35-year-old Vatrice Little, was pronounced deceased at the scene of the incident on the 1700 block of Paris Street in Aurora, Colorado, about 15 minutes after police were notified of the shooting.
The suspect, 32-year-old Kelynn Lewis, was arrested by a large police force Sunday morning. Officers surrounded Lewis at a residence near Iliff Avenue and Jewell Avenue.
The fatal incident began when Lewis entered the Paris Street apartment of 27-year-old Deondranay McCain. Lewis had moved out of the apartment three months earlier.
The two were parents of a young child and had recently divorced (although the marriage was determined to not be legally binding during those divorce proceedings).
Lewis reportedly walked to the doorway of a bedroom where McCain and Little were braiding one another’s hair.
He raised a black handgun, said to McCain, “You think this was a game?” and fired once at McCain’s head, McCain told investigators.
McCain then stated she dropped to the floor and pretended to be dead. From that position, she saw Little move in front of Lewis.
McCain then told investigators she heard four or five gunshots and Little fell to the floor next to her, suffering obvious wounds to her face and bleeding badly.
Lewis then left the apartment and McCain called 9-1-1.
Little was McCain’s cousin.
When asked by investigators why Lewis may have done something like this, McCain said she had told Lewis in a phone call earlier in the day that her youngest child was not Lewis’s biological child.
Per the affidavit, Lewis had believed the child was his and he had cared for the child since birth.
On February 15, the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office filed murder and attempted murder charges against Lewis.
There are also four counts of misdemeanor child abuse in the case. The affidavit mentioned children being present in another bedroom of the apartment during the shooting.
On March 6, Lewis is scheduled to appear in Adams County District Court.
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