‘She shot me in the stomach’-Shooting victims tell of gunfire
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‘I heard Ashlei (Edwards) yell ‘I’ve been hit,’ said Brent Newby, 28, who was sitting on horseback next to the 19-year-old on a dark Airport Lake Road. Newby recalled how the teen was struck in the shoulder by one of the first shots fired by suspect Pam Ooley, 46. ‘She (Ashley) started squalling and crying and then there were more shots and all of a sudden I said, ‘She shot me in the stomach.’
Ooley and her husband, Jeffery Allen Ooley, 43, were bound to the grand jury Tuesday by General Sessions Judge Larry Ross during preliminary hearing on charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault in a hearing during which both Newby and Edwards testified.
Mrs. Ooley, the alleged shooter, was ordered to undergo a mental evaluation while the $500,000 bond for her husband was cut in half since his involvement in the crime was reportedly driving his armed and drunk wife to the scene. Mrs. Ooley maintains she was high on Xanax at the time, her claim somewhat substantiated by lawmen who found her to be under the influence when they apprehended her later that night.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Newby said he still is not sure what prompted the Ooleys to drive out to Airport Lake Road where he and four friends were doing some nocturnal horseback riding.
‘They (the Ooleys) were on the phone with Timmy (Bates) and he had it on speakerphone and we were all just cutting up,’ Newby recalled of a cellphone call earlier in the evening marking the first contact he had ever had with the Ooleys. ‘Then she called me an SOB and things went from good to bad real quick.’
Newby denied making any threats to the Ooleys, although the defense suggested Newby said something provocative.
It was around 10 p.m. when Newby said the Ooley vehicle slid to a stop near where they were riding with Mrs. Ooley jumping out of the passenger side with a rifle under her arm and her husband stepping out of the driver’s side with a pistol tucked under his jacket.
‘They started saying where’s Brent,’ Newby recalled, noting he denied being Brent. ‘Hey, they had guns so I wasn’t Brent right then.’
It was moments later Newby said Mrs. Ooley started shooting.
‘I heard her husband tell her that she was going to hurt somebody,’ Newby recalled, noting Mr. Ooley was having a heated conversation with the group at that point and was standing near the line of fire.
‘She said ‘You want to mess with me,’ recalled Edwards of Mrs. Ooley, who she recognized from a prior meeting. She added Mrs. Ooley is Timmy Bates’ aunt’s sister. ‘At first I thought I was hit by a paintball gun. She just kept popping them off. She was intoxicated and going nuts.’
Newby said the group scattered with one going to a nearby house while he sprinted off across the road, fearing Mrs. Ooley was just getting started. The Ooleys, at that point, got back into their vehicle and sped off. Both Newby and Edwards were airlifted to Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga for treatment of their wounds, Newby a stomach wound and Edwards a wound to the shoulder which passed into her back.
While being asked for bond reduction on both Ooleys, with the defense pointing out neither have prior criminal records, Judge Ross resisted for Mrs. Ooley.
‘We don’t know what set her off to basically endanger innocent citizens,’ Ross said. ‘What if she comes by my house next? I think this woman needs to be evaluated so we can figure out what’s going on in there.’
Ross also refused to significantly cut Mr. Ooley’s bond, noting he knowingly took his armed and intoxicated wife to the scene, making him at least partially responsible for her actions despite his attempts to get her to put down the weapon.