Lumberton woman dies after she was shot while sleeping next to boyfriend

STEDMAN, N.C. (WTVD) -- A Cumberland County man recounts the night his girlfriend was shot while she was sleeping next to him in a Stedman home.

The sheriff's office said Brittany Carmichael died the next day at Cape Fear Valley Hospital.

Carmichael's boyfriend William Dean said he was still awake at 10 p.m. while Brittany was asleep next to him in bed.

"I went to go grab a cup right by my bed on the counter, and I turned all the way around and... it was people at my window," Dean said.

He said he walked to the window and asked them to leave--not knowing who they were or why they were there.

"(W)hen I rolled up the window and said that... one of them ran off. But the other people just started shooting at me," Dean said.

He said shattered glass from the window hit him in the eye.

"As soon as I was hit, I turned around and fell right on the ground," Dean said.

The bullet holes can be seen in the window and the back of the house. Dean said he found his girlfriend shot near her right hip, and tried tending to her wound until officers and EMS arrived.

"I did tell her this--that it was not the end. Because you are alive, you've already been shot. It's not the end. You good, you're good baby, you're good. And she believed me. She told me not to leave her, though. The last thing she said to me was don't leave her," said Dean.

At this time, the sheriff's office is not releasing any specifics about what happened. But Dean wants answers. He said he planned to propose to her in the coming week, and that Carmichael leaves behind a 13-year-old son.

"I just hope for justice for my girl. That's all I want; is justice for my girl. Because I need to know what happened and why it happened," Dean said.

The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office is asking anyone with information to contact their department.