A young mother tragically died while reading the Bible to her baby after getting shot by a stray bullet.
23-year-old Melanie Yates was a dedicated mom and a devoted Christian who was reading a bedtime story to her young daughter when she was shot in the head by a stray bullet.
The incident took place in Zion, suburban Chicago, where Melanie and her husband Daniel were putting their two daughters to sleep in separate rooms on Saturday evening.
As Melanie’s mother, Lam Calderon, revealed, several loud bangs were heard near the family’s home all of a sudden. After calling out to his wife and receiving no answer, Daniel immediately rushed to his other daughter’s bedroom only to find his wife unresponsive.
“He looked for her, where she was at in the house, and he found her shot in the head,” Calderon told ABC 7 Chicago.
She added: “He came in and he told me that our daughter had been shot and we didn’t believe him. It was just unfathomable.”
Following the senseless shooting, Yates was rushed to the hospital. Due to the severity of her injuries, she was taken off life support and pronounced dead on Monday.
After the shocking incident, the authorities launched a manhunt for the gunman. Meanwhile, the police suggested that Yates was likely not the shooter’s intended target.
“Everybody who knew Lanie knows she loved Jesus Christ with every fiber of her being. There is no doubt whatsoever that she is in heaven at this very moment. But we on earth miss her very dearly,” the young mom’s family wrote on GoFundMe where they raised more than $120k in donations to help out the widowed father.
“We miss her passionate, powerful prayers. We miss her infectious laugh. We miss her beautiful singing voice lifting songs of worship.
“We miss her feisty, witty humor. We miss her dedication to being an amazing, godly mom and wife. We miss her. And we wish with every fiber of our being she was here, but we know she’s in a better place.”
Our thoughts are with Melanie’s family and friends during these challenging times.
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