A MOTHER was shot and seriously wounded yesterday as she held a gun to her three-year-old son’s head after escaping from jail.
The boy was unhurt when the police deputy opened fire in Smithville, Tennessee, but Karen Lynn Lovell was taken to hospital on a stretcher. Lovell, who is in jail for stalking and harassment, had faked a seizure in prison on Thursday and been taken to hospital. On the way back to jail, she gave prison guards the slip, stole a patrol car and smashed through a roadblock, slightly injuring a policeman, on her way to her sister’s home to collect her son. The sister is his guardian.
Lovell then held the boy hostage at gunpoint as police closed in on her. The deputy shot her while she was holding the child, who was then hurried away in a policeman’s arms. He was blood-spattered and crying, but otherwise unharmed.
“The child is safe and that’s absolutely the No 1 thing,” Sheriff Lloyd Emmons said. “Unfortunately, she engaged my deputy with the handgun, and she was shot.”
Of Lovell, who was taken away by ambulance, he said: “We certainly hope she’ll be all right.”
