She was supposed to be safe at home. After two decades of battling cancer again and again, 49-year-old Jennifer James had finally begun to live without constantly looking over her shoulder. Friends say she poured everything into her four children, working, caregiving, and quietly enduring treatment after treatment without complaint. Her life, defined by grit and gentleness, ended in an instant because of a bullet that never had her name on it.Two of her children were inside when the gunfire tore through the night. Now, instead of planning for milestones, they are planning a funeral and learning to navigate a world without the woman who held everything together. The suspect, a 20-year-old who told police he fired “accidentally” while handling a gifted gun, sits in jail, while a town wrestles with fury, disbelief, and the unbearable question of how someone who fought so hard to live could be taken so thoughtlessly.
Mom who beat cancer four times shot dead in tragic accident
