A 27-year-old Centennial woman was shot in the head Saturday morning when a bullet was fired through an apartment wall.
The shooting happened about 11:30 a.m. in the 6800 block of South Ivy Way, according to the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office.
The victim, Sally Rose Strelecki, is in critical condition in an induced coma, said her mother, Amy Graham.
“She is in bad shape; it’s a really grim situation,” Graham said. Strelecki has undergone two surgeries and is suffering seizures.
“They are trying everything they can,” Graham said of medical workers.
Mickel McLean, 26, has been arrested as a suspect in the shooting, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. McLean was booked into the Arapahoe County jail for investigation of first-, second- and thrid-degree assault, illegal discharge of a firearm, felony menacing, and reckless endangerment.
The morning of the shooting, the sheriff’s office received 911 calls, including one from McLean. The suspect told investigators he was “involved in an argument and the gun he was holding went off,” the release said.
The sheriff’s office describes McLean as being cooperative in the ongoing investigation.
McLean told investigators that he and his girlfriend were arguing over use of the bathroom when they struck each other several times. He then started packing his belongings, according to an arrest affidavit.
They continued arguing, and McLean grabbed a 9mm handgun. He struck his girlfriend in the left knee, and the gun went off, the affidavit said.
The girlfriend gave a different account of the incident: She said he pointed the gun at her from about 8 feet away. He fired one shot in her direction, the affidavit said. She described the shot as accidental, telling investigators he had pulled a gun on her about a year earlier and she felt he was “just trying to scare her.”
Strelecki was standing at a kitchen counter, preparing to feed her dog, when she was struck.
A to help Strelecki.
“Our world is devastated right now,” Graham said. “It is so bizarre, very hard to wrap your head around. Somebody next door was having a domestic violence argument, careless with a gun and it went off and through the wall. The whole trauma of it, it could happen to anyone if someone is careless with a gun.”
