Lillian veterinarian hit by bullet after man opened fire on her group

LILLIAN, Ala. (WALA) - A well-known veterinarian in Lillian is recovering from a bullet wound after a man opened fire on her group.

They were just south of Dothan, competing in a field trial with bird dogs and horses. Dr. Susan Wells was the only one hit after several shots were fired.

“Get in the trailer, get in the trailer!” she said. “Some crazy person is shooting us!”

On crutches, Dr. Wells walked across her Baldwin County property and retold the chaos from Saturday.

Her group of trainers were competing in a field trial in Campbelltown, Florida, near Dothan. Two children were with them, and two horses were close by. One horse named Radley was with them.

Dr. Wells remembered seeing a man come out of the woods.

“I saw him pull something out of his coat, and then I hear rata-ta-ta-ta-ta, and I start hearing her trailer ‘bing-bing,’” she said. “Then we hear dogs screaming. We see dirt fly up, and I mean this is like seconds, and I look at Lisa, and I say he’s shooting at us! Run!”

Ducking for cover, she slid underneath her truck and was hit in the leg by a bullet.

“I turn and feel ‘bing’ and my leg comes up, and I had just been hit, and I look down and I could put my foot on the ground, but I don’t know, so I just run,” she said.

She said the first thing she thought of was the horses.

“Absolutely because they were right there, so I just assumed when we came back and they would be just shot up, just terrible,” she said.

She showed the bullet marks on the side of her trailer, and the horses were standing right in front--unharmed.

The suspect is Earnest Jett Jr. and investigators said Dr. Wells’s campsite was near his property.

He’s now charged with second degree attempted murder.

“It was horrifying to everybody there,” she said. “It’s going to cause some long-term problems with some of the people and some of the children, and we are just really sad it happened.”

According to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, Jett is awaiting extradition to Florida this week.

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