Broken Arrow To Honor Shooting Survivor

By Lori Fullbright, The News On 6

BROKEN ARROW, OK -- A Broken Arrow woman who was shot by her ex-boyfriend and is now paralyzed wants to help other women avoid the same fate.

It was 18 months ago when Teresa Thompson's ex-boyfriend, Kelly Waymire, broke into her home, shot her and held her hostage for hours.

Teresa Thompson is a woman who finds joy wherever she can, her pet bird, her children, her friends.  She has overcome tremendous odds and is now getting used to a new reality as woman bound to a wheelchair.

"I wake up and think surely this was all a dream. It cannot have happened to me," said Teresa Thompson.

Thompson had known Kelly Waymire since she was 17 years old and they fell in love.  When things went badly, she got away from him.  He promised to change and she so wanted to believe him.

"I need to help him.  I can't turn my back on a friend that I've known my whole life. I can't let him lose everything," said Teresa Thompson.

Before he broke into her house, she believes Waymire set her car on fire, poisoned her plants and kidnapped her cat.  She filed police reports and got a protective order, but none of that stopped him from nearly killing her.

"I will always remember the moment he shot me, watching him come from outside my doorway, screaming at me to come here, I'm going to kill everybody in this house," said Teresa Thompson.

Thompson's escape plan of going out a window didn't work because her youngest daughter was home.

How the shooting has and will affect her three children is still the hardest part for her.  She hopes other women will see her, realize the truth in their own troubled relationships and get out while they can. 

As for her, she is determined the make the best of her new life.

"You just have to go on.  Be positive and have to live life to the fullest, best way you can now," said Teresa Thompson.

Waymire was given several life sentences.

09/26/2008  Related Story: Jury Recommends Life For Kelly Waymire

Thompson will be honored as part of National Crime Victim's Week during a ceremony on Thursday at the Broken Arrow Police Department.  The public event will begin at 2:30 p.m.