GRAIN VALLEY, Mo. — Amie Wieland, 33, is a medical miracle. She was shot in the head at point-blank range by her ex-boyfriend last November but somehow survived.
“I could say that I questioned my faith prior to this but this incident has led me back on the straight path, ” says Wieland from her home in Oak Grove, Mo.
She was leaving work at OOIDA trucking headquarters in neighboring Grain Valley when she was ambushed by Alan Lovelace in the parking lot.
“He stalked her. He broke into her car and was laying in wait for her to get off of work,” says Grain Valley Police Detective Anthony Vigliaturo.
FOX 4 obtained surveillance video from the parking lot that shows Amie turning around as soon as she sees her ex-boyfriend sitting in her mini-van. The video goes on to show Lovelace running up behind Amie as she heads back to her workplace and Wieland still remembers what happened next.
“He came up and shot me point-blank. ” The mother of two told FOX 4.
” I’m a 100 percent believer now when they say that your life flashes, it really does.”
Wieland says she nearly died at the hospital but survived because of a miracle bullet that entered the back of her head and exited through her left cheek without hitting any vital organs.
“It missed my spinal cord, my main artery, and my brain,” says Wieland.
Detective Vigliaturo concurs Amie’s bullet took a miraculous path.
“If you were going to get shot in the head that’s the only place you can get shot and not really have too much to deal with.”
Wieland’s ex-boyfriend Alan Lovelace fled to San Diego in her mini-van after the shooting. A week later he shot himself when police surrounded the mini-van. Detective Vigliaturo suspects years of alcohol abuse caught up with Lovelace.
“Everything in his life at this point started crashing down. He lost his job, his friends started distancing himself. She had just filed for custody of the children and didn’t want to be anywhere around him. Everything came crashing down at one point in his life.”
Wieland says she’s sad the man she shares an 8-year old daughter with took his own life,
“Why did he let his demons got so bad when he had so many people that loved him?” But she also admits to a feeling of relief.
“I don’t have to live in fear anymore.”
Wieland says Lovelace had sent her threatening texts in the past but she never thought he was capable of shooting her. She says as part of her recovery, she’s decided to forgive Alan, “To move on you have to forgive, you can’t dwell in the past.”
Amie attends physical therapy because her left arm remains weak and can barely lift a packet of gum. But otherwise, she’s made an amazing recovery and hopes to go back to work this summer. She’s already relearned how to brush her daughter’s hair and soon hopes to drive again.
“I’m pretty positive. It (the shooting) changed my outlook on life.”
Email: rob.low@wdaftv4.com | Twitter @fox4roblow
