By Rosaleen MacBrayne
TAURANGA - A heavily pregnant teenager's only concern when she was shot in the face in a freak accident in downtown Tauranga last month was the wellbeing of her unborn baby.
But five weeks later, 17-year-old Chanel Sullivan has been safely delivered of a 4770g (10lb 4oz) daughter, Marcel.
Cuddling
her precious three-day-old bundle at home yesterday, she said she just wanted to put the traumatic incident behind her and get on with being a mum.
Her partner, Chris Wilson, who "just about fell over" when he was told over the telephone that she had been shot in the face in the street, shares her relief.
He helped at the birth of the baby - who was two weeks overdue - and said he "couldn't stop smiling."
Chanel Sullivan still has shrapnel embedded in the soft tissue around her chin, which causes some discomfort, but doctors are loath to remove it because it will leave a scar.
She was chatting outside the Work and Income NZ office in Durham St on April 12 when she heard an explosion. She put her hands to her face and realised she was bleeding.
"All I was worried about was if my baby was all right," she said yesterday.
An imported shotgun, which had just been collected from the police arms office nearby and was being put in a utility vehicle, had gone off.
She was hit by pellets, which were removed at Tauranga Hospital, and some metal from the ute's door frame.
A Police Complaints Authority investigation is still under way into how the single-barrelled shotgun, imported from Ireland, discharged. Police suspect it may have arrived with a round jammed in the magazine.
