BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -
A mother says her daughter tried to get away from an abusive man, only now to find herself in ICU, paralyzed and fighting to stay alive.
Roslyn Crump has two vehicles parked in her backyard. Her daughter almost died in both of them just days apart.
Kayla Atkins is fighting for her life and at the moment, paralyzed and four months pregnant. Actually blessed, believe it or not, considering how many times she was shot and what she had been through before that.
"I told her, Kayla I don't sleep. We have to do something about this. I don't sleep, I don't rest well. I worry about you all day and all night, we have to do something. And finally Kayla made it up in her mind to get away and look what happened to her," said Crump.
Frank Atkins is accused of strangling his wife in a pickup truck on Sunday, while she drove down the road and eventually wrecked. He went to jail for that, but bonded out. And just one day later, Frank Atkins is accused of shooting his wife several times in a different vehicle. Kayla was in the passenger seat, her cousin was driving and there was a three year old in the back seat.
Kayla's mother says the bullets severed part of her daughter's spinal cord, and that it's touch-and-go for the baby she is carrying.
She is, of course, worried about that, but at the same time, concerned about the cracked justice system
"Because of his past and what he had just done to her by strangling her with domestic violence, I feel like his bond was set too low and he was able to get out and I feel like the justice system had failed me with that," said Crump.
Kayla had two different restraining orders, had called the police several times, and tried to end it. Her mother has a message for women out there who may be going through the same thing: "Just take what happened to my daughter as an example. There is a way out and you do have a way out. Some kind of way, don't stay and don't stay until it's too late, because next time they might not be as lucky to be living like my daughter- but at 23 I feel like he has taken my daughter's life away from me and away from her kids."
U.S. Marshals arrested Frank Atkins and he is now facing attempted murder charges. WAFB checked with the jail and Atkins is now looking at a bond of more than $1 million. He is charged with attempted second degree murder, illegal use of a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
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Kayla Atkins
Frank Atkins being escorted to Parish Prison
WLBT 3 - Fox 40
