After a deadly domestic dispute, an Elkhart woman shares her story

Only on ABC 57, after almost five months an Elkhart woman is still dealing with the scarring memory of a deadly domestic dispute that happened at her apartment.

ABC57 first told you about an apartment complex shooting that happened in Elkhart that left one person dead.

On  Monday, Leon Lewis was originally scheduled for an initial hearing, but because the state did not have evidence to present to the court  it has been rescheduled for February 23rd.

That delay means Lewis’s ex-girlfriend, Bridget House, will have to continue to wait. She’s never shared her story before and she now shares she’s blessed to even be alive. 

I thought we were going to die; I’m not going to lie! I thought this was it, like we are about to die that’s what I felt like,” said House.

House decided to remain off camera but admits Lewis would beat her. “A total of 5 times and every time it kept getting worse,” she remembers.

House says she called Lewis before the day of the shooting to tell him she couldn’t handle the abuse anymore and wanted to end the relationship.

“It’s always good at first, but then all of a sudden he started putting his hand on me,” she said.

On October 19th 2016, a day after that conversation, Elkhart Police were dispatched to the Carriage House Apartments, which is where house still lives.

According to court documents, Lewis showed up at the apartment, with his cousin Jarius Lewis.

To have your cousin Jarius and a gun, I already knew what he was on,” said House.

A fight broke out between them and House’s family who were also inside. “He had pulled out a gun and started pointed it at everybody, of course that’s scary,” added House.

Soon after that, according to police, Leon Lewis fired his gun inside the apartment. Then the violence spilled outside. “And the next thing I knew he starts shooting in the house and he came out on my balcony and started shooting at my cousin,” said House.

When both Lewis' left police say Leon was driving, while Jarius was in the passenger seat. One of the people involved in the fight shot at the car striking Jarius. At this time, the person who fired the shot hasn’t been named and no charges have been filed.

Jarius died four days later, which is something House says didn’t have to happen. “I was like oh my goodness, because all of this could’ve been avoided. All you had to do was just leave.”

House showed ABC57 where Leon Lewis left holes from punching her apartment walls and where the bullet holes remain a constant nightmare for her.

“It messed me up in the head like I still have flashbacks about it and  I live in the same house that everything happened in so and I feel like I have to keep watching my back because his cousin died.”

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