by: Tom Regan Updated: Oct 10, 2016
COBB COUNTY, Ga. – Police are searching for the man who shot a husband and wife as they left a Cobb County restaurant over the weekend.
Cynthia Welch and her husband, Anthony, were leaving a birthday celebration at Pappadeaux’s restaurant when an armed robber shot them. Anthony died.
“All I could see was the barrel of his gun pointed right at my face,” Welch said.
She spoke only to Channel 2’s Tom Regan about the terrifying moment they were ambushed.
“We were holding hands going to the car, and he must have been in between the cars, because he came out of nowhere,” she said.
She said he lunged toward her husband first and then her, pointing a gun in her face, then ripping a piece of costume jewelry from her neck.
“He ripped it and you can see the scratches. I think I went to shield myself and he just shot me and that’s when it went through here and then lodged in my breast,” Welch said.
The bullet entered under her arm and remarkably caused no serious internal injury.
“Once he shot me, I looked down and my husband was on the ground and he took off running,” Welch said.
Bleeding from her gunshot wound, she ran toward the restaurant for help.
“People were coming out trying to console. I tried to get up and run back to my husband, but I was bleeding bad and they were trying to console me,” she said.
Welch told Regan the robber made off with nothing more than her costume jewelry necklace worth around $5.
‘When he attacked me he put the gun to my face and he said, ‘Give me everything,’ and all I had on was a $5 costume necklace,” she said.
In the process, he took the life of her beloved husband of 25 years.
“He didn’t have to kill my husband. He didn’t have to shoot him,” she said through tears.
The bullet is still lodged in her body. She says doctors will soon surgically remove it.
Welch says she’ll never forget the gunman’s face.
“I just remember he was dark complexion, slim face. He was tall. His eyes, he was just right in front of me, and just looking dead at me,” she said.
Cobb County police are tracking down leads in this case and urge anyone who has any information to contact them.