A Georgia pastor says he is heartbroken after a purported stray bullet entered his home and killed his wife.
Mac Ellison, a pastor at Temple of Faith Ministries, said he and his wife Lashunda Heath-Ellison, were sleeping in their Decatur home on Oct. 5 when he was woken up by her breathing abnormally loud. He thought she was snoring, but he could not get her to wake up, he said. He could “barely see the white” of her eyes.
When Ellison and their children rolled Lashunda over they realized that her pillow had blood. They called for help. Doctors later discovered that the pastor’s wife had a bullet lodged in her brain. Mac and Lashunda had been married for over 20 years.
“When you’re really talking about marriage, it’s until death do us part,” Ellison said in a Facebook video while holding his wife’s hand and trying to put back on her wedding ring. “And death it was that caused as to part.”
The family is shocked by Lashunda’s death. No one in the house heard the gunfire, according to Ellison. He and his son discovered a hole in the wall at the back of the house. Authorities have not been able to identify who shot the bullet. It went through the couple’s headboard and into the center of Lashunda’s brain, her husband said.
“What’s amazing about this is that I heard nothing,” said Ellison adding that the couple cuddled every night as they slept.
Although the pillow was saturated with blood, Ellison said his wife did not appear to be bleeding. He initially thought that the blood could have been coming from her ears, and paramedics assumed that she had a cut. The bullet was later discovered with an x-ray.
The pastor said both he and his wife own handguns, but the couple was on good terms, and there was no indication that Lashunda was suicidal. Ellison said his wife had just celebrated her 50th birthday the weekend before the incident. She died five days later at Grady Memorial Hospital.
The DeKalb County Police Department is investigating the case as a homicide.
Ellison refers to his wife as an “amazing woman” and an angel. The couple shared at least two children and were planning to celebrate his son Dejan’s birthday and their wedding anniversary soon.
“I believe to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Please give us a moment to process this,” Ellison wrote on Facebook. “My Perfect Angel is gone but forever in our hearts.”
