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Grandmother opens fire on family
Sheperd, Tina.jpg
Tina Sheperd

A grandmother who opened fire inside her home in the direction of family members has been hit with 10 criminal charges.

Tina Shepard, 53, faces five counts of aggravated assault and five counts of reckless endangerment for the incident that escalated from a verbal argument. Her case has been bound over and could go before the grand jury in May.

According to the warrant for Shepard’s arrest, the gunshots were fired at Shepard’s home on Grove Road in the Viola area after Shepard had left her bedroom to go outside and smoke a cigarette. When she returned, she walked by five people in her living room, including her daughter and two granddaughters. A verbal confrontation began.

The argument became heated with Shepard’s daughter, Chasity Richardson, yelling back at her mother. It got to the point where Richardson reportedly screamed at her mother to “just shoot her in the heart and kill her.”

Shepard then walked into a back bedroom and emerged holding a handgun by her side. It was at that point everyone in the home reportedly started yelling at Shepard to put the gun away and calm down.

Instead, Shepard allegedly raised the gun and fired three shots into the living room, which is where everyone was sitting. She then left the house and reportedly fired two shots into the air from her porch.

Her family members inside the home ran outside, took cover behind a vehicle, and called 911. They were still behind the vehicle when law enforcement arrived.

Defense attorney Ryan J. Moore said the incident is unfortunate but that Shepard was defending herself against combative relatives.

“They say no good deed goes unpunished and this is an example of that,” said Moore. “This is a lady who was letting her daughter and her grandchildren stay with her because they had no other place to go and they try to take advantage of her on her own property. She was being ganged up on by her own family.”