She never liked her stepfather. He drank and swore and hit. Sometimes he would threaten to kill her, though she didn't take the threat seriously. She was 13 and still invincible. But then he climbed into her bed one night.

And he was completely naked and he had a knife and I took the knife and I just I think some

people have a spirit of resilience that will get them through and I must have always had that

because I took the knife and I I went to stab him in the hand just to get him away from me. And it went

into his hand just a little bit. And he was really shocked by that. And my brother came out,

you know, and was staring at him. And he just went, well, I never thought your sister would do

that as he was bandaging his hand.

She forced him out of her room that night, but something inside her said that maybe she should take his threats more seriously from now on.

Three days later, he shot her.

Clay Lashar Summers was still bleeding on her bedroom floor when police arrived.

Her mother was crying at her feet.

Her stepfather, the man who had just minutes earlier fired a 30-0-6 high-calibur hunting rifle at her back,

was sitting calmly at the kitchen table.

He was drinking tea.

From the team that brought you accused in collaboration with the trace, this is Aftermath, a podcast about gunshot survivors. I'm Amber Hunt.

There's a line that I, as an American crime reporter, have come across a lot in news releases.

The injuries were not considered life-threatening. After 20 years reporting about violent crime,

I have come to hate those words. They're too simplistic, too dismissive. Yeah, a life didn't end,

but there's a decent chance it changed forever. Isn't that

newsworthy, too? In 1970, Clay Lashor Summers survived the gunshot, her stepfather blasted into her back.

But that gunshot changed the trajectory of her life. She's 61 years old now, and she carries scars that go far beyond the physical.

She suffers from anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. She's dealt with depression and severe trust issues.

...