A woman arrested late last week after a shooting at a Southside residence has been officially charged in Independence County Circuit Court, and her bond has been set at $100,000 by Judge Don McSpadden.
According to court information filed Friday afternoon, officers from the Independence County Sheriff’s Department were called to a Campbell Lane residence on Dec. 26 on reports of a man being shot in the abdomen by another woman at the house.
When deputies arrived, they were advised that both the shooter and the injured victim were still inside. After entering the residence, they found a female subject, identified in the affidavit of probable cause for arrest as Denise Renee Shands (pictured), 54, sitting on a couch, who told them, “I’m here,” the court info said.
Deputies detained Shands, who was noted in the affidavit as having an “odor of intoxicants,” while the male victim was treated by EMTs at the scene and then transported to White River Medical Center where it was determined he needed to have emergency surgery due to the extent of his injuries.
During an interview the next day at the medical center, the shooting victim told investigators he had been watching Christmas movies with his grandmother in the home’s living room when he saw Shands slap the grandmother and then go into her bedroom. The victim said he followed Shands into her bedroom and slapped her because he believed “[Shands] should not be hitting” the grandmother, the court documents noted.
After returning to the living room and sitting on the couch, the victim said he saw Shands come back from her bedroom holding a firearm. When he stood to see if he could get the weapon from Shands, he told investigators that’s when Shands fired the firearm, striking him in the groin and mid-abdomen area.
The victim told authorities he has had problems with Shands in the past, and he believed she had “mental issues,” the affidavit said.
Deputies also noted in the court info that a single-shot shotgun with a shotgun shell hull for 7.5 birdshot was discovered under a mattress in Shands’ bedroom. Birdshot pellets consistent with the hull from the weapon were removed from the victim’s body during the surgery, the affidavit said.
Shands is being held at the Independence County Detention Facility on a count of battery in the first degree. The Class B felony is punishable by imprisonment of not less than five nor more than 20 years and a fine of not more than $15,000 or both a fine and imprisonment.
Image via Independence County Sheriff’s Department
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