Annette McGhee is calling her miracle “The Passover.”
“God guided that bullet so that it would pass over me and not destroy me,” said McGhee, 63. “I thank God for sparing my life. I just know it was God who kept that bullet from ending my life. It grazed my head and I have an awful headache, but I’m thankful to be alive.”
McGhee and her husband, David, were inside their Chittenden Street home in Akron about 6 p.m. Thursday when they heard gunshots outside. David McGhee remembers hearing three shots and a pinging sound inside the house before a bullet landed on the floor, near his left foot, as he was reading the first Book of Psalms in his Bible.
As the bullet landed on the floor in the kitchen, David McGhee heard his wife screaming: “David! David! I’ve been hit!”
When he made his way into the living room, where his wife of nearly 30 years was sitting watching TV and playing solitaire, he saw blood on her arm.
“At first I thought she was shot in the arm. Then I saw where her wig had moved back and blood was streaming down her face,” said David McGhee, 72. “The [police] officer said the bullet probably hit her and ricocheted all the way around and fell by my left foot.”
According to Akron Police Lt. Rick Edwards, unknown gunmen in a maroon sport utility vehicle and a gray van were shooting at each other near the McGhees’ home when a stray bullet pierced a window in the home, striking Annette McGhee. Police recovered multiple .40-caliber shell casings from the intersection of Duane Avenue and Lucy Street to the 300 block of Chittenden, where a .40-caliber slug was recovered from a fence.
Annette McGhee, who said she heard two shots before being grazed, was transported to Summa Akron City Hospital, where she was treated and released.
“I had a burning feeling on the top of my head and then felt blood running down my face. I called for David and, by the grace of God, I’m still here,” McGhee said. “I think my wig kept the bullet from going through my head, but it was God who spared my life.”
The McGhees said the ordeal has left them shocked, shaken and uncomfortable in their home. But it has also strengthened their faith in God.
“Looking back, I call it a blessing that God sent the police, paramedics and so many other people to care for us and help us,” David McGhee said. “I’m just grateful that that bullet didn’t kill my wife. This whole thing has reminded me that we can’t take time for granted. We can’t waste time bickering or being mad at each other or complaining. We have to be more thankful.”
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Akron police at 330-375-2490.
Colette Jenkins can be reached at 330-996-3731 or cjenkins@thebeaconjournal.com. She can be followed at www.twitter.com/ColetteMJenkins.