Ellwood City domestic gun violence survivor: ‘I’m still here’

ELLWOOD CITY — Early last year, Cassidy Smith emerged from a two-month coma in a Youngstown hospital with no memory of how she got there.

She had been shot in the head, her family gently explained, and her mother didn’t survive the gunfire.

“It’s been a long road for me,” said 25-year-old Smith, who has since endured a myriad of brain surgeries and complications related to the January 2023 ordeal, including three aneurysms and a life-threatening infection.

Smith was shot in her third-floor Ellwood City apartment in what police called a “senseless act of violence” that took the life of her 42-year-old mother, Krista Knechtel.

Smith’s then-boyfriend, Keegan Willis-King, formerly of New Mexico, was arrested and charged with homicide and attempted criminal homicide shortly after the incident. He’s still in Lawrence County Jail awaiting trial.

Smith met Willis-King while staying with a friend in New Mexico, her family said, and the man accompanied her back to Lawrence County a few months prior to that agonizing January day. He had lived with Smith, her mother and her younger sister in their First Street apartment without problems for most of that time, according to her family.

More: Man charged in Ellwood shooting that killed one, left another in critical condition

Then, on Jan. 30, 2023, Smith was working as a shift manager at a nearby McDonald’s when she returned home early to check on Willis-King, who had recently experienced a seizure.

When Smith arrived, she found her mother “slumped on the couch,” and scrambled to call 911 for assistance. Police said that’s when Willis-King raised a pistol and shot Smith.

“One bullet went through her cell phone completely and lodged in (Smith’s) head,” said Tawnya Rodgers, Smith’s aunt. “The other hit the phone and left fragments in her head.”

When officers arrived, they found Smith face down on the floor soaked in blood, but still breathing. She was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.

Her mother, she later learned, had been shot multiple times in the face at close range and died that afternoon. The Lawrence County coroner ruled her death a homicide – the borough’s first since 2017. Smith’s younger sister survived by sheltering in a bedroom and calling 911, police said.

Once Willis-King was taken into custody, officers recovered the alleged assailant’s blood-stained gun and Smith’s phone lying beside it, according to police reports.

“When Cassidy was coming out of her induced coma, she was so confused and scared he was going to come and hurt her,” Rodgers said.

‘I’m still here’

Now, more than a year later, Smith’s recovery persists.

She’s met months of rehabilitation with tenacity, Rodgers said, steadily regaining mobility despite setbacks.

“I told her she’s worth a million dollars,” Rodgers said about the steep cost of Smith’s intensive medical care, covered with assistance from a victims of crime program.

Smith still doesn’t have full use of her right arm, and she speaks slower than she once did – but she’s out of the hospital and living with her grandmother, Lynn, who said she’s “so proud of how far (Smith) has come.”

“We don’t know if she will regain full movement of her arm,” Rodgers said. “It could take up to two years to know what her full disability is going to be, but she will likely need some level of care for the rest of her life.”

Most days, Smith is in “high spirits,” Rodgers said. Her traumatic brain injuries led to personality and cognitive changes, but her sense of humor and liveliness remain intact. She still loves tattoos, sunflowers and musician Post Malone. She and her family have since held gatherings thanking first responders for helping to save her life.

“She doesn’t really get upset or angry; she’s always smiling,” Rodgers said. “She likes to have fun and joke around, even when she was in the hospital.”

Smith described the past year of her life as “exhausting,” but said her 6-year-old son, Noah, and his father, who is currently caring for their son, keep her motivated throughout her recovery.

“We just told Noah I bumped my head,” Smith said.

She still has no memory of the shooting, but vividly remembers her life before it. She continues to process the loss of her mother.

“I just love her,” Smith said.

As a survivor of domestic gun violence, Smith said she hopes her story underscores the importance of responsible gun ownership and firearm safety. She didn’t know her former boyfriend had access to a firearm prior to the incident, she said, nor did she have any indication he could become violent. Police don’t have a clear motive for the alleged crimes. Willis-King is presumed innocent of all charges until proven guilty in court.

More than half of all intimate partner homicides in the United States involve a firearm, government data shows. One in three American women experience physical violence, sexual violence and/or stalking by a current or former intimate partner over the course of their life, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Smith plans to attend her former boyfriend’s trial that’s scheduled to begin later this year.

“I want to say, ‘F— you, I’m still here,’” she said.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Ellwood City domestic gun violence survivor: ‘I’m still here’