Woman shot twice by ex-husband recounts tale

CONCORD, N.C.,None — Nearly two months after a local woman was shot twice by her husband before he turned the gun on himself, she opened up about the volatile relationship and her recovery.

Erin Cobb married a fellow Marine and former Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer, a man she said was mentally abusive and manipulative.

When she tried to break things off with him, the relationship turned physically violent and deadly. .

“He just got this look in his eye,” Cobb said, recalling the night her ex-husband, Jeremy Hester, tried to kill her when she told him she was leaving.

“I saw him pull a gun out of his pants and he shot me. Then he shot me again. Then I heard a third shot and I knew he had shot himself,” she said.

Hester died two days later.

Cobb survived, but two months later she is still fighting to regain her life. She is paralyzed from her chest down and recovering from shots that pierced her neck and mouth.

“I had to have four titanium plates in my jaw and complete reconstruction,” she said.

It’s a challenging place for a former Marine and competitive bodybuilder.

She met Hester in the Marines when the two served in Iraq. She said he returned with PTSD, and that’s when things escalated.

“He refused to get help, get better, refused to acknowledge that he had any problems,” Cobb said.

But she never imagined the relationship would end like it did.

“He would call me 100 times a day, just would not leave me alone. (He would) show up places. Finally, so he would stop, I allowed him back in my life,” Cobb said.

Cobb said that was a mistake and she’s now sharing her story to warn women in abusive relationships to leave before it’s too late.

“I had so much pride. I said, ‘I’m not leaving my life. I’m not the one with the problem.’ And in the end, this is how I ended up,” she said.

Now she spends every day focused on rehabilitation, determined to walk again.

“I am eternally hopeful. I’m strong. I believe in my body. I shouldn’t have survived and I did, and there’s no reason I can’t overcome this as well, survive this as well,” Cobb said.

In keeping with Cobb’s passion for fitness, her friends at Cross Fit Vitality in Concord have planned a Cobb WoD, or workout of the day, event in her honor Saturday, Nov. 19, to raise money to help with her medical bills.

Previous Stories: September 25, 2011: Former CMPD Officer Shoots Ex-wife, Self

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