"Pain like I'd never felt pain before": Kamloops woman describes gunshot wound | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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"Pain like I'd never felt pain before": Kamloops woman describes gunshot wound

KAMLOOPS - A Kamloops woman told a court today how she was shot through the floor of her home while her four-year-old daughter sat on her lap watching cartoons.

“I heard an unbelievable bang and felt pain like I’d never felt pain before,” said Tanya Watkins.

Watkins, 25, testified today in B.C. Supreme Court during a trial for Trevor Wilvers. Wilvers is accused of shooting Watkins last year at a duplex on Brunner Avenue, June 4, 2013.

He faces multiple charges including assault, criminal negligence causing bodily harm and possession of a firearm contrary to court order.

The Crown alleges Wilvers got into an argument with a criminal associate at 1734 Brunner Avenue when the gun went off upstairs around 6:20 p.m. and hit an unsuspecting Watkins living in the basement suite.

Watkins told Justice Sheri Donegan today that she was sitting on her couch with her arm rested overhead when it all happened. She said the bullet penetrated through her left elbow into her upper arm between her bicep and tricep.

“It felt like someone had come through the wall and literally snapped my arm in half,” she said. “But I couldn’t figure it out.”

Her husband at the time was on a computer nearby when it happened and quickly tied off her arm with clothing to suppress the bleeding while her daughter remained nearby on the floor.

Watkins spent almost a week in hospital and had surgery to remove the bullet and shattered bone. She said she was left without an elbow and several inches of missing bone, for which she had metal rods surgically inserted into her arm that visibly protrude through her skin.

Watkins said her daughter, now five years old, is in counselling having suffered emotional and mental anguish from witnessing the events, along with continued nightmares and fear of ‘the bad man.’

The Crown expects to call between five and 10 witnesses for the trial slated to last through the week. Wilvers also faces charges of unlawfully causing bodily harm, uttering threats, possession of a prohibited/restricted firearm with ammunition, use of firearm using offence and possession of a weapon for dangerous purpose.

To contact a reporter for this story, email: jwallace@infotelnews.ca, call: (250) 319-7494 or tweet: @jess__wallace.

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