posted 07-05-2005 08:42 AM         

Dorothea Thomas survived the six gunshot wounds and a jump from her second-story balcony at Liberty Crossing Apartments that was necessary to get away from the man charged with trying to kill her last week.

But when Thomas, 39, found an eviction notice on her front door Wednesday morning - the day after she returned home from Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville - she was shocked to learn that the apartment complex managers want her gone by Monday.

"I'm here with two bullets still in me, and they are telling me that I have to be out in four days," said Thomas, who was lying in her bed Wednesday with her leg propped on a pillow. "This has been my home for almost 10 years. If anything, I would think they would come up here to see how I was doing."

Thomas has read her lease, which ends in October. She's never thought much about the paragraphs outlining how she or her guests are supposed to behave. Thomas considered herself an exemplary tenant, and she always paid her rent on time.

She wouldn't have let Tyrone Burks, 45, of Linwood Drive, in her apartment, which is off Gum Branch Road, last Friday evening if she thought he was going to pull out a gun and start shooting, she said.

"I didn't feel he would do something like this," Thomas said. "That's why I invited him in."

But apparently the commotion that Thomas caused as she attempted to get away from Burks violated her lease agreement.

According to the eviction notice, Thomas and her guests cannot behave in a loud or obnoxious manner. They also can't disturb or "threaten the rights, comfort, health, safety or convenience of others (including agents and employees) in or near the apartment community, disrupting our business operations."

Thomas said she is being treated unfairly.

"I shouldn't be victimized again for something I didn't do," Thomas said.

Thomas had a visit from Burks at about 7:30 p.m. Friday. She's known him for about two and a half years. They both worked for the state Department of Correction in Burgaw. She was a case manager, and he was a corrections officer.

They dated for about two years until Thomas broke off the relationship three months ago. It was a decision that didn't sit well with Burks, but Thomas never expected that he would try to kill her because of it.

Thomas didn't want to relive the details of his attack all over again. She deferred to the account Jacksonville police told The Daily News following the shooting.

She did say that once Burks pulled out his .45-caliber gun, she ran down the stairs of her second-story apartment and tried to get out the front door.

"He was punching and beating me upside my head with the gun," Thomas said.

He discharged a round in the apartment, and she got away by jumping off of her balcony - a move that broke her left foot. She tried to get away, but he kept shooting.

"He was standing right over me shooting," she said. "I just believe God was right next to me."

She also thinks her survivor side kicked in. She has no doubt her professional training - she was a Marine for four years and a Jacksonville police officer for a year - helped as well.

Burks left in a 1992 Camaro. He jumped out of the car on U.S. 17, just past New River Air Station. He was charged with attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, felony speeding to elude arrest and speeding 115 mph in a 55-mph zone. He is in Onslow County Jail under $200,000.

Thomas was hit in the right palm, right forearm, right breast, upper left chest, left thigh and left buttocks. Doctors are still waiting for the bullet in her chest to move closer to the surface before removing it. The one lodged between her tailbone and hip won't be removed unless it becomes too painful, she said.

She is confined to her bed until Friday when she is supposed to get a cast put on her broken foot and shattered hand. Thomas, her 3-year-old son and 18-year-old niece, who all live in her three-bedroom apartment, have nowhere to go. She also doesn't know how she can possibly move out by Monday.

She called Ann Waters, community director of Liberty Crossing Apartments, who referred her to Peggy Piche, the district manager of United Dominion Residential Community, which owns the apartment complex. Thomas said Piche told her it was beyond her control and that it's in the lease. Thomas said Piche recommended that she ask Waters to give her extension.

posted 07-05-2005 01:22 PM         

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Originally posted by ALLEY CAT:
After 10 years of being there,,,,I think a warning would be first justified.

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posted 07-05-2005 10:10 PM         

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Originally posted by ed monahan:
What makes you think he is going to jail? If he has no record, he has a good shot at probation. Sad, but true.

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Attempted MURDER,,,,,six bullets hit her,,,,released on probation??? >>>>>> Hang the judge if that is the call.

posted 07-05-2005 10:14 PM         

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Originally posted by Marty Usher:
Why should she be evicted if she was the [b]victim? I don't get it. And I have owned up to several dozen rental houses at a time so I do think like a landlord. [/B]

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Exactly Marty,,,you understand good tenants who stay and PAY on time! I guess you and I have more compassion for some people,,,,,,,others just like to kick the dog when its down anyway.

posted 07-06-2005 01:32 PM         

This is in Eastern NC.
Probation ain't gon'na happen down there. Shooting a female correction officer who was a former cop and Marine? This dude will serve SOME active time.