269,024
total hearts received for Moments That Survive

Rhonda Denise Cureton

I lived in an abusive relationship with my two youngest daughters’ father for 14 years. He was very controlling. I was afraid to leave. He drank a lot, and things were really bad when he did drink. In March 2016, I finally got tired. I told him I was going to take my three daughters and leave because no one deserved to live in hell and suffer the way we did every day. On March 12, 2016, he had been drinking, and he started fussing. I didn’t like talking to him when he was drinking. I was walking off to go into the house when he pulled out a revolver and told me I was going to die. He pulled the trigger and fired. The first shot scraped my ear and the second shot hit me in the head (it was a deep flesh wound, and I only ended up getting staples). But he was in a rage and he tried to shoot his own daughters. He shot and killed my 17-year-old daughter (not his daughter). She died protecting us. He also shot a good Samaritan who had stopped to help us. He then killed himself.

Reacting shows support for gun violence survivors.

269,024