Exclusive: Jacksonville mom who survived shooting that killed her sister home from hospital

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville mom who survived the shooting that killed her sister is now out of the hospital and home with family.

Only Action News Jax was there for Lisa Rucker's emotional return home exactly two weeks after the deadly shooting.

“The last image I have of (Ashlee) in my head is her lying dead on the ground,” Lisa Rucker said. “And that’s what I’ll get to remember the rest of my life.”

Lisa Rucker has been through four surgeries and two blood transfusions.

Doctors had to take a bone out of her leg to repair her jaw because of the damage the bullet caused exiting her cheek. She was shot in the back of the head.

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“I was told that if it had been a quarter-inch more to the right that it would’ve hit my spine and it could’ve killed me or paralyzed me,” Rucker said. “So I’m very lucky to be alive.”

Lisa said Chad Absher shot her first as she was trying to intervene and protect her sister, Ashlee Rucker.

Lisa said Absher then turned the gun on Ashlee, his ex-girlfriend, shooting and killing her in front of Lisa and each of their children.

“It really hurt me to know that she wasn’t going to be there anymore,” Rucker said. “I was in the hospital bed when I got told. I was sad. She always protected me. She always did, my whole life. She was really the only really good friend I had left.”

Lisa is battered and bruised, but still fighting as she has since day one.

She has a strong message for the suspect.

“He did so much more than take Ashlee away,” Rucker said. “He took a mother, a sister, a daughter, an aunt -- and I hope that for the rest of his life he has to deal with it.”

Tonight on FOX30 Action News Jax at 10, Russell Colburn will have more from his conversation with Lisa Rucker, including what she remembers from the night she was shot.

Cox Media Group