A woman has recalled the terrifying night in 2018 when her neighbor murdered her partner and shot her in the head with a crossbow while she was pregnant.
Describing the incident that happened in January 2018, Laura Sugden shared how she found her neighbor Anthony Lawrence in the bedroom of her then three-year-old daughter Isabelle who was not home, reported The Mirror.
Lawrence had earlier threatened her boyfriend Shane Gilmer with an axe after the couple complained about his loud music. This wasn't the only issue. Lawrence was evicted after they had complained to the landlord about cannabis fumes and suspected he grew plants.
The couple had just got back home after a Friday night at Gino D’Acampo’s restaurant in Hull when Sugden saw a dark stain on the carpet.
She opened the bedroom door and found Lawrence wearing a head torch and pointing what she thought was a gun at her. She asked what he was doing in the house and then shouted at Gilmer, who was downstairs.
Sugden called 999 and hid her phone in her dress. She said, “I was terrified. It was surreal. I kept thinking this isn’t happening. Then I heard Shane saying, ‘What the f*** is that?’ The next thing I heard him moaning.”
Soon, Lawrence dragged Gilmer into the room. A crossbow bolt had gone through his right forearm and into his abdomen, causing damage to his liver and a kidney.
She asked, “Is that going to kill him?” She recalled Lawrence replying with a smirk, "Yes, and now I’m going to kill you too."
Lawrence said that the attack was in revenge for getting him evicted.
She begged for her life, and told Lawrence she was pregnant. He just stared at her, and said “Blah, blah, f****** blah” before shooting her in the head.
She said, “Blood was gushing down my face and I felt dizzy. I heard Shane scream and I looked over at him. He was pale and crying.”
She managed to stand up and pull the bolt from her head as her neighbor left the room. She went over to her boyfriend and squeezed his hand. Lawrence returned holding another crossbow bolt, but she threw herself at him. He pushed the point into her neck. But Sugden managed to shove Lawrence off her and pin him down, calling for help from Gilmer, who cried “I can’t.”
Pushing her off, Lawrence fled from the room.
Gilmer was gasping for breath. "He looked at me, really looked at me, like the look someone gives you when they are going away for a long time and then told me, ‘Be strong, I love you’.”
She went downstairs and struggled with three locks on her back door before running to a neighbor.
Meanwhile, Gilmer called 999. Ambulance staff couldn't go inside the house in the hamlet of Southburn near Driffield, East Yorks, until firearms officers gave a green signal. Sugden believes without that delay her boyfriend could have made it.
Two days later, Lawrence was found dead from an overdose of painkillers in a camper van on the A170 near East Layton, North Yorks.
Sugden is now launching a campaign demanding for stricter control on crossbows.
Currently, no background checks are required and they can be bought by anyone who is over 18. Weapons like the one used by Lawrence are easily available online for 150 pounds. She wants them to be reclassified as firearms. This would require people to go through police checks, reported Daily Mail.
She now plans to start a petition to regulate crossbows. "I’m determined to stop another potential lunatic from buying one. I don’t want any other family to go through what we have," she added.
© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
