LEX 18 — An Owsley County man is speaking out after he says a night out with his friends turned into a violent attack that left him paralyzed.
Jerry Bennett says this all started over a comment he made to his friend, Kaylee Helton.
"Her child's friend came out of her house smoking a joint and demanded Kaylee take her to get another joint," says Bennett. "And I spoke up and said, 'You don't need to be smoking weed anyway' was all I said to the kid."
Bennett says that started an argument between him, Helton, and her child's father, Marcus Peters. He says he went home to avoid any trouble.
But according to Bennett, Helton, Peters, and a third man, Robert Cope, showed up at his door a short time later.
"They act like they're drunk. I came out with an AR-15 in my hand because it was dark, and I didn't know who it was," says Bennett.
From there, Bennett says Cope and Peters overpowered him, took his gun away, and proceeded to carry out a brutal assault.
Bennett says he then lost consciousness and had to drag himself to a phone to call for help after waking up.
He was taken to a hospital where they found he had been shot in the back and paralyzed from the waist down.
According to the arrest citation, Peters admitted to the assault, claiming Bennett made a sexual comment to his underage daughter.
Police determined that Bennett was shot with his own firearm.
Cope, Peters and Helton were arrested and charged with complicity to assault and complicity to 1st-degree robbery.
"I just want justice. I don't want them to do anybody else this way," says Bennett.
Cope and Peters remain in jail. Helton is out on bond.
