Shooting survivor tells of a domestic quarrel gone wrong

AINA Uushona thought she was going to die when her policeman husband shot her in the chest at Swakopmund just after midnight on Sunday.

“I was bleeding terribly, but something told me I had to go and look for help,” Uushona told The Namibian on Tuesday. She was waiting to be discharged from the Swakopmund State Hospital “to go and organise my husband’s funeral for Saturday”.Sergeant Erastus Shitengeni Uushona (36) shot himself in the head with his service pistol after thinking he had killed his wife of nine years.”We were just having a normal quarrel, as husbands and wives sometimes do.It was nothing serious,” said Uushona.According to her, it was his habit to take out his gun and threaten her whenever they had a quarrel and he was drunk.”He has never fired a shot before.I never thought he would go so far.I warned him that it was not a good thing to threaten me with a firearm.Once I said I was going to tell his colleagues, but I never did.You know it is not part of our culture to talk about things happening in your home.”On Sunday morning he fired a shot.Uushona was lying down at the time and the shot went through her chest just beneath her right shoulder.”I was lucky the bullet did not go through any bones – I was very lucky,” she said.Despite bleeding profusely and feeling weak, she managed to run into the street in front of their Mondesa home.An off-duty Police officer was driving past and she stopped him.He immediately used a cloth to try stop the bleeding and was just about to take her to hospital when Uushona’s youngest child, a seven-year-old, came running out of the house calling:”Mommy, daddy has killed himself.”Erastus had gone to the bedroom to shoot himself where her son – who turns eight on Sunday – found him there.Uushona’s daughter of ten was not at home.She lives with her senile grandmother to help her around the house.Uushona, a community development officer at the Swakopmund Municipality, remained strong and calm as she recalled the nightmare, but the tears started running when she talked about her son.”He is very brave, but I am worried that these events will affect him one day.”She was told that he had not said a word or eaten much since Sunday.”He was his father’s favourite and always told me we should not quarrel,” said Uushona, wiping the tears from her eyes.She quickly regained her composure, saying life must go on.”I know God spared my life for a purpose and that is to look after my kids.Mothers know best how to care for children.A father can marry again and his new wife might not like the kids.So I will have to work hard to take care of my children in future.”Her message to other women: “The circumstances will be different for every woman, but all I can say is that women should not keep quiet like I did.They should also not allow their husbands to be influenced by family members or friends.It is very dangerous to allow this to come into your marriage,” she warned.”Husbands are weak people,” Uushona, who describes herself as the stronger one in the relationship, said.”I was the steering wheel of our marriage.”She was waiting to be discharged from the Swakopmund State Hospital “to go and organise my husband’s funeral for Saturday”.Sergeant Erastus Shitengeni Uushona (36) shot himself in the head with his service pistol after thinking he had killed his wife of nine years.”We were just having a normal quarrel, as husbands and wives sometimes do.It was nothing serious,” said Uushona. According to her, it was his habit to take out his gun and threaten her whenever they had a quarrel and he was drunk. “He has never fired a shot before.I never thought he would go so far.I warned him that it was not a good thing to threaten me with a firearm.Once I said I was going to tell his colleagues, but I never did.You know it is not part of our culture to talk about things happening in your home.”On Sunday morning he fired a shot.Uushona was lying down at the time and the shot went through her chest just beneath her right shoulder.”I was lucky the bullet did not go through any bones – I was very lucky,” she said.Despite bleeding profusely and feeling weak, she managed to run into the street in front of their Mondesa home. An off-duty Police officer was driving past and she stopped him.He immediately used a cloth to try stop the bleeding and was just about to take her to hospital when Uushona’s youngest child, a seven-year-old, came running out of the house calling:”Mommy, daddy has killed himself.”Erastus had gone to the bedroom to shoot himself where her son – who turns eight on Sunday – found him there.Uushona’s daughter of ten was not at home.She lives with her senile grandmother to help her around the house.Uushona, a community development officer at the Swakopmund Municipality, remained strong and calm as she recalled the nightmare, but the tears started running when she talked about her son.”He is very brave, but I am worried that these events will affect him one day.”She was told that he had not said a word or eaten much since Sunday.”He was his father’s favourite and always told me we should not quarrel,” said Uushona, wiping the tears from her eyes.She quickly regained her composure, saying life must go on.”I know God spared my life for a purpose and that is to look after my kids.Mothers know best how to care for children.A father can marry again and his new wife might not like the kids.So I will have to work hard to take care of my children in future.”Her message to other women: “The circumstances will be different for every woman, but all I can say is that women should not keep quiet like I did.They should also not allow their husbands to be influenced by family members or friends.It is very dangerous to allow this to come into your marriage,” she warned.”Husbands are weak people,” Uushona, who describes herself as the stronger one in the relationship, said.”I was the steering wheel of our marriage.”