DECATUR, Ga. — Ask LaTanya Porter, described her only child, and the string of compliments are never-ending.
"She’s strong, she’s confident, she’s simply beautiful. When I look at her I go, 'you came out of me?'” LaTanya joked. "(She) just took care of her mom and her family. Family girl.”
That girl, 32-year-old Parris Porter, is a mom of three young children. But they've been separated by an act of violence.
Parris' family forever changed at midnight on February 2nd.
“A lot of people don’t know that we were in the house. Me and the kids," said LaTanya.
While in her bedroom, LaTanya said she heard her daughter's long-time boyfriend and the father of her children arguing with Parris. LaTanya said he took Parris's purse, left, and came back an hour later.
"They started arguing again. Well, he was arguing. She was calm. And then I heard pow! I ran out my bedroom cause their room was like across from mine," LaTanya said. “I saw him with the gun and said 'what did you do?' He raised the gun up and then ran into the bedroom. I heard my baby moan, but I couldn’t go in there cause he went that way.”
LaTanya grabbed her grandkids and ran next door. A few minutes later, she heard another gunshot.
“I still smell it. I still smell that gun smoke. I’ll never, ever forget that smell as long as I live.” She said.
Parris survived the shooting. The father of her children did not.
LaTanya was left confused. She never saw any signs of domestic abuse in the couples decades long relationship, until Parris decided to end the relationship.
"They were together since she was in the 10th grade." She said. "He was always like 'yes ma’am' and 'how are you?' Always kind. But, I saw some things in him when she was ready to fly. I was like, who are you? He never lifted a hand towards them. He showed no signs until the end and I was floored, floored!”
LaTanya’s now taking care of her grandkids with some help from their great-uncle and the Fulton County School System. LaTanya said the schools sent them gas cards, gift cards, toys, and clothes.
“We had to leave with what we had on. I had on a shirt and some socks. The kids didn't want to go back in that house." She said.
And every day since Parris was shot in the head, LaTanya's visited her at Grady Hospital. A piece of Parris's skull was missing, and it took more than a month before she could speak. And all the while, LaTanya's watched her daughter's hair grow back, her speech and memory recover.
“She knows her name now, she knows who I am, she knows she has three kids." LaTanya said. "When I say this young lady has come a long way. I’m in awe.”
She is in awe of Parris’s beauty, her recovery, and of what they survived that night.
“This has been a journey I wouldn’t wish on anybody.” She said.
LaTanya said she hasn't talked to her daughter about the night. She wants to focus on Parris's recovery. She's now headed to a rehabilitation center, where the hope is to discuss the trauma, once she's further along with her motor skills.
While Parris recovers, LaTanya will take care of her three grandchildren. A fundraiser was started to help with those costs, as well as Parris' medical bills.