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Woman expected to survive after being shot by neighbor

Abigail Mounce alert, talking after surgery

By Stevie Mathieu, Columbian Assistant Metro Editor
Published: November 3, 2014, 12:00am
2 Photos
Erich and Abigail Mounce
Erich and Abigail Mounce Photo Gallery

A fundraising Web page to help cover the Mounces’ medical expenses is at

www.gofundme.com/AbigailMounce

The Clark County woman shot in the head Friday by her next-door neighbor is expected to survive her injuries, her husband said Sunday.

After undergoing facial reconstruction surgery, Abigail Mounce, 33, was alert, talking and able to walk on Sunday at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, husband Erich Mounce said. She was admitted to the hospital in critical condition Friday after her neighbor, 59-year-old John Kendall, shot her while his car was stopped alongside the Mounces’ car at a red light.

“I’m thankful she’s alive and I love her very much,” Erich Mounce, 46, said. “She’s doing really well. She has her mental capacity.”

His wife’s eye, which was split in two during the shooting, will likely need to be removed, and she has temporary hearing loss in one ear. The bullet entered through her cheek and splintered into fragments, Erich Mounce said. Some of those fragments will remain in her brain.

A fundraising Web page to help cover the Mounces' medical expenses is at

www.gofundme.com/AbigailMounce

“It’s just too dangerous to remove it,” he said. Abigail Mounce will need to be on anti-seizure medication because the bullet fragments could trigger seizures, her husband added.

The shooting occurred around 8:30 a.m. near the intersection of Northeast 63rd Street and Andresen Road. Kendall fled the scene, prompting a manhunt by law enforcement. At about 9:30 a.m., police converged on an area near North Blandford Drive and East Evergreen Boulevard, where they eventually found Kendall dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Kendall had been involved in a dispute with the Mounces over rules set for their Meadowcharm subdivision in unincorporated Clark County, west of Interstate 205 and south of Padden Parkway. The Mounces alleged Kendall had violated subdivision restrictions by renting rooms in his six-bedroom house.

On Friday morning, the Mounces were headed to the Clark County Courthouse, where Kendall was scheduled to make a court appearance for failing to follow court orders in the case, when the shooting occurred.

After her surgery, Abigail Mounce first was only able to communicate using hand gestures and by writing, her husband said. And she wanted to know what happened to the man who shot her.

“She asked, ‘Where is John?’ and I said, ‘He’s dead,’ ” Erich Mounce recalled. “And she wrote: ‘Did you?’ “

He told his wife that, no, he had not killed Kendall, and that their neighbor took his own life. Upset by the situation, Abigail Mounce tossed her pencil and clipboard across the room, her husband said.

The emotional wounds are still fresh for both of them, Erich Mounce said. While driving to buy a phone to replace the one his wife lost in the incident, he found himself stopped at the same intersection where the shooting occurred, he said.

“My arms started shaking. My heart started racing. … I started thinking about the whole sequence of events again,” he said. “I think it’s going to take some time for both of us to recover from this.”

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Columbian Assistant Metro Editor