LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY)  Deangela Celestine, 28, is a domestic violence survivor and a mother of seven who needs the community’s help since returning home from the hospital after being shot multiple times by her ex-boyfriend at Brook Pointe Apartment complex back in September 2023. 

Celestine said she remembers Sept. 11 as the morning she woke up and brought her children to school and daycare during her normal routine. She said her ex-boyfriend, Norvel Etienne, 26 of Morganza started calling her phone. She explained they haven't been talking for at least a month besides co-parenting the three out of seven kids they have together. Unfortunately, she said she told her ex-boyfriend she wanted to be left alone, but he would call repeatedly and threaten her. As Celestine said she was going to take action and get a restraining order the next thing that happened changed her life forever. 

“I walked outside of my door, and I went from underneath the breezeway at the apartment that I was living in, and he was just there," she explained to News 10. "At that moment he attacked me. He pulled me by my hair and I fell to the ground and he just began shooting me." 

She said he shot her both in her left and right arm, two times in the head and multiple times in the abdomen. 

“The only thing that was really running through my head was that I wanted to make sure that I stayed alive for my seven kids," Celestine said. "That's the only thing that was really running through my head. I was just praying and just saying, Please don't let me die. I just can't and my kids need me."

The family said Celestine spent three months in the hospital and three weeks in rehab before returning home. She has a permanent reminder of that day as she is paralyzed from the waist down. 

“I would never think in a million years it would be me to be paralyzed from the waist on down,” she said. “I'm not able to care for my kids as I used to, and it’s kind of sad little bit because they’re used to the mom that I was before 9/11 and I'm hoping that one day I can walk again.” 

While on the road to recovery, she lost her mother Marquette Porter who was in hospice before the shooting. Unfortunately, Celestine never got a chance to say her goodbyes. 

"The emotions that I'm feeling sometimes it's a bit of happiness to be home but at the same time, it's a bit of sadness, too, because of the event that took place," Celestine said. "It's just hard because I'm just like, just so not used to being like this." 

As if the hardship on Celestine’s body isn’t enough, she is currently living with her sister in a one-bedroom apartment. 

“I refuse to go back to Brook Pointe and live there after the accident," she said. "So we're really in need of housing at the moment." 

“It’s been a process just waking up every day, coming here and changing my sister every morning and just having self-motivation to her and just letting her know that, you know everything is going to be okay,” Marquette Celestine the sister of Deangela Celestine said. 

“Being paralyzed from the waist down is a different type of level of doing things differently," she continued. "So it's like transitioning her to let her know that everything is going to be okay and I just want the best for my sister and her seven kids and anybody that's able to help her with anything like therapy, finances, and housing, we would love that help. I just want my sister to be able to walk again. So as a sister, I'm going to do a lot of motivation to her and her kids and I just want the best for her.” 

Marquette Celestine recalled the long nights and mornings with her in the hospital and not being able to sleep. 

“Me and her just both up wandering, you know, when she's going to be able to come home to her kids," she said. "It’s just different standards and different things and different levels and things and you got to have a lot of self-motivation to yourself and it's been days like we both cry and, you know, we both tell each other it's going to be alright, but we just want the best of the best out of everything."

Marquette Celestine said doctors said there is a chance her sister would be able to walk again, but it's still the beginning and they have to take time.

“Time is going to become available for her to walk again," she said. "So I'm going to keep doing my part as a sister and just motivating her and just letting her know that God has the last say so and we're going to get those legs running again." 

Sgt. Robin Green with the Lafayette Police Department said there has been regular contact with the family to stay updated with Deangela Celestine’s journey. She said community members along with the department had helped her children this past Christmas with gifts and money to help purchase gifts for the family since Deangela Celestine was still hospitalized due to the injuries she had sustained in September.

“Miss Celestine was like the sole provider for her kids and she has a remarkable family because when this incident did occur, they stepped up but right now, in her current condition, right now, it's a lot,” Green said. “Anyone can help her if they know of any organization that can help assist her and her kids in getting to a bigger place or anything as far as that can assist her with her therapy. Any organizations or different providers that can assist her with her road to recovery.” 

“This is an unfortunate situation that she was in. Domestic violence is something that happens a lot in our community and it's just a tragedy, a senseless tragedy actually, that shouldn't have ever occurred,” Green concluded. 

A message to others who are in a domestic violence situation Deangela Celestine said.

“First-time domestic violence leave. Don't take it as a joke. It doesn't matter if you have kids together. It doesn't matter how much they say they love you leave because I mean, I hate to see another young person like me almost get taken away from their kids,” Deangela Celestine said. “I just want my story to touch multiple people and let others know that domestic violence is not a joke.” 

The Lafayette Police Department urges anyone who is a victim of domestic abuse and needs help getting out of the environment to contact the Domestic Abuse Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or you can contact the local Family Justice Center at 337-210-5986 for assistance. If you would like the help Celestine and her children. The family has set up a GoFundMe account.

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