ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – Nine days after being raped, stabbed, shot 11 times, and left for dead, a 31-year-old north St. Louis County woman is alive and telling her story in hopes of educating and empowering other women.
“He knocked me out and continued to rape me,” she said. “I didn’t know I was stabbed because I got shot in the head.”
Her nightmare took place inside the condo of her attacker, 36-year-old Shawn Hughes, whom she knew from the bar where she works. They were planning on hanging out that night. Once she arrived, she texted saying she needed to use the restroom. But once she walked in, he attacked.
“He did what we wanted to do. I was fighting him, kicking him, scratching, but he just started beating me.”
After regaining consciousness, she reached for her gun in her coat.
“I grabbed my gun out of my pocket and I got ready to shoot him and he lit me up.”
Hughes shot her 11 times with his own gun and then ran. Miraculously, she managed to crawl to her phone and call police before passing out. First responders helped save her life.
“Give me 11 bullets and I can give them to him in 11 different spots…Give me justice, just do it,” she said.
Hughes was arrested a short time later and charged with rape, assault, armed criminal action, and unlawful possession of a firearm. He’s being held on a cash-only bond of $500,000.
When asked what she wants to see happen to her attacker, her answer is clear.
“I just want him injected. I want the death penalty. This man is a monster!”
She said Hughes told her he was going to do her like he did the others. She believes he could be responsible for more horrific crimes.
She also wants all victims of sex crimes to come forward.
“Tell your story. Don’t be scared. Don’t worry what someone is going to think about you because at the end of the day you’re still not healed when you’re holding it in.”
According to our news partners at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Hughes previously pleaded guilty to a felonious restraint charge in 2013, but three other charges were dropped, including first-degree rape and two counts of first-degree sodomy. The charges stemmed from the kidnapping of a woman. The victim said he should have been in prison.
