Sumter woman recovering after near-fatal shooting weeks before her wedding

SUMTER, S.C. (WIS) - A victim of a gunshot wound is still being treated after being shot late last month outside her house. Chasity Miles is a mother, nurse, and fiancé.

On August 30, the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office and EMTs responded to a call that a woman had been shot in her lower back near South Saint Paul Church Road in Sumter.

Now, Chasity’s fiancé says he is not sure if she will ever walk again.

“She just said I am hit. I am paralyzed,” Ernie Seruya, Chasity Miles’ fiancé said.

Miles was set to be married just a few weeks later to Seruya who says she was walking towards him when she was shot.

“I sat there and held my hand on her until EMTs got there and the police department,” he said.

A former trauma ER nurse in the Midlands, Seruya says his fiancé was amazing on that near-fatal night.

“She is such a strong person. She was telling the EMTs what to do, with all of her nursing training. She knew exactly what was going on and was giving them directions on what to do. If I would have been in her place, there’s no way I could have kept it together, but she did.”

Miles is a mother to a 6-year-old, Boone, and according to her family, she is already making plans to have more memories with him in the future.

She is currently paralyzed from the waist down and will go through extensive rehab over the next year.

A GoFundMe was created in her honor as she continues her recovery, and over $25,000 have been raised. Seruya says the community’s support has been helping their family get through these dark days, and that Miles has even been making calls about their wedding from her hospital bed.

“It makes me see how much of an incredible woman she really is. I already knew, but it is hard to even put it into words,” Seruya said.

The couple currently does not have a new date for their wedding which was set to be in St. Lucia at the beginning of October.

If you are interested in donating to Chasity Miles’ GoFundMe, visit the link.

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