Victim: Shooting won’t deter her visits
By Ed Runyan
NILES
A Columbus woman who suffered a grazing gunshot wound to her head early Wednesday said the incident won’t stop her from returning to visit family.
“I’ve got family here,” said Julie Schrum, 52, the woman injured in a drive-by type of shooting that took place at her niece’s house.
“If I would have been sitting up, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation. I just thank God I’m alive,” Schrum added.
A truck driver “between jobs,” Schrum was sleeping on the couch at her niece’s house on Main Street near Deforest Road when the gunshots came through the front of the house at 1:21 a.m.
Schrum said she didn’t know what had happened at first and discovered a large amount of blood on her forehead.
She called out to her niece, concerned that something had fallen from the ceiling to cause the injury.
The family then found multiple bullet holes in the front of the house, in a television set and in the wall, and concluded that the injury had come from a bullet.
“I didn’t know what to think,” Schrum said.
She’s pretty sure that whoever fired the shots wasn’t targeting her since she doesn’t live in the area and hasn’t lived here since she was a young girl.
The wound on Schrum’s head required several stitches to close, caused swelling and “one heck of a headache,” she said Thursday.
A CAT scan showed no concussion or damage to her skull.
Meanwhile, Weathersfield police, who received assistance from Howland and Niles police, continue to investigate.
Weathersfield Township Police Chief Joseph Consiglio has not returned in-person requests to comment.