LINCOLNTON, N.C. (WNCN) — A North Carolina dad shot his recently separated wife while she was making dinner with her children nearby in the home, officials said.
The incident took place in a home last week in Lincoln County near Lincolnton, according to a news release from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies were called to a home on Sunny Hill Drive around 8:45 p.m. Thursday and found a woman lying in the front yard with a gunshot wound to her stomach, the news release said.
Cheryl Youvette Ussher, 46, was shot while inside her home “as she prepared dinner,” the news release said.
“Several family members, including the victim’s children, were in the residence when the incident occurred,” deputies wrote in the news release.
Her recently separated husband then chased the mother “out of the house and into the yard where he attempted to shoot her again, however, the handgun jammed,” officials said.
Ussher was immediately taken to Caromont Regional Medical Center in Gastonia.
“The shooting appeared to be unprovoked,” deputies said in the news release.
Jerry Matthew Cox, 44, ran from the scene but was found about two hours later by deputies, officials said. He was charged with attempted first-degree murder, according to an arrest report.
He was held in the Lincoln County Detention Center on a $750,000 bond.