A Milwaukee family is in hiding after they say a disgruntled ex-boyfriend made two attempts on their lives this week.
Patricia Lewis was shot while asleep at her home on 62nd St. this past Sunday. Her grandson and her elderly mother were also living at the home. Police are investigating.
Lewis, now walking with a limp and a cane, said the bullet remains lodged in her right leg.
"I jump up in my bed. My leg is burning. And I feel moisture. It’s wet. So, I jump up. I fall on the floor," said Lewis. She said someone shot into her bedroom from outside the home.
Lewis and several of her family members told us that the shooter is Lewis' youngest daughter's ex-boyfriend. Police, they said, just don't have enough evidence to prove it yet.
Family said he's been terrorizing them for years. Lewis showed us photos of her smashed home and car windows. She also said he's fired a gun in the air outside her home and yelled threats when her grandchildren were playing outside. Their parents stopped letting them come over, she said.
Her cousin, L.T. Austin, stepped in on Sunday to hide the family.
"I'd like for them [police] to get that guy. I'd like for him to be taken off the streets. He's a danger to society," said Austin.
While they were in hiding earlier this week, Lewis received a call from police on Thanksgiving morning. Someone had set fire to her house. It may be a total loss.
“I am grieving the loss of my home. Everything that was dear to me, all my pictures, all my important — I had some important stuff, everything is gone," she said.
Police said they're investigating it as arson and that no one was hurt.
The man Lewis is accusing of the crimes has a lengthy criminal record, including domestic abuse, violating restraining orders and bail jumping.
Milwaukee County issued an arrest warrant for him on Friday on charges including false imprisonment and battery. Lewis said she filed a report with police several weeks ago that the man had held her daughter against her will.
We're not naming the man for now because he's not charged in connection with the crimes at Lewis' house.
“His fight is with me for some reason. But the fact that she won’t be with him – he told her if she wouldn’t be with him, he told her he’d kill her whole family," said Lewis.
Lewis said without a home, and recovering from a gunshot wound, she cannot take care of her elderly mother who has dementia. On Friday, her brother picked up their mother and drove her to stay with family in Mississippi.
"I want my life back," said Lewis. "I never would've thought I'd be in this position at this time in my life, at nearly 65, starting over. How do I start over?"
Spiritual Tabernacle City of Change Church has organized a GoFundMe on behalf of the family.
