THE woman involved in this week’s tragic shooting in Dudley Park has broken her silence in defence of the man she loved.
Nola James was reported to have been shot by her husband Allan about 8am on Monday.
Mrs James alerted police and emergency services after fleeing her Goomarl Street home to seek refuge in a nearby house.
Within minutes, streets in Dudley Park were cordoned off with the area put under lockdown by police after Mrs James reported her husband had access to other firearms.
Tactical Response Group (TRG) officers stormed the couple’s home a short time later and found Mr James dead with a gun nearby.
Mrs James, who had been rushed to Peel Health Campus following the initial shooting, was discharged on Monday afternoon.
Speaking with the Mandurah Mail on Wednesday, the 75-year-old now says her husband had not meant to hurt her and the injuries she sustained amounted to nothing more than powder burns.
“He did not try to shoot me,” Mrs James said.
“He shot next to me to frighten me, but he did not shoot at me.”
Mrs James said her husband was “used to guns” and had fired a shot close to her to get her out of the house so she “wouldn’t see what was going to happen”.
Contrary to reports the couple had been involved in an earlier domestic dispute, Mrs James said she and her husband had been very content.
We were a happy couple.
- Nola James.
“We were a happy couple,” she said.
“There was definitely no domestic dispute.”
Mrs James said her husband had been “going through hell for the last two years” and was battling bowel cancer in the lead-up to his death.
“He hadn’t left the house for over a year,” she said.
“He used a walking stick.
“He couldn’t do anything.”
On top of his cancer fight, Mr James had also had a stroke which left him without vision in one eye.
“It all just got too much for him,” Mrs James said.
“He’d had enough.
“I was not shocked that he shot himself.”
Mrs James, who is being cared for by family members, said she would remember Mr James as a “loving husband and a great dad”.
The couple had lived in their home together for 20 years.
A report into the incident is being prepared for the coroner.