Cindy Lee was walking down the road with her 9-year-old son and sister Linda when they heard what sounded like firecrackers, then Cindy said something was wrong.
"She sat down on the ground and said she thought she'd been shot," said Linda Lee, Cindy's brother. "I thought she was just saying that she was scared because she had heard firecrackers, and I had seen she had been shot."
Lee was shot in the chest. She was rushed to a nearby hospital and died a short time later.
Investigators say Terry Williams fired the deadly shot, but they say the bullet was not intended for Lee. She was more than 300 feet down the road from where the bullet was fired.
"After an altercation between the suspect and another person that lived in this apartment complex, the suspect was shooting a rifle at another person and just accidentally or unintentionally struck the woman," said Harnett County Sheriff Larry Knott.
Cindy Lee leaves behind four young children. She will be buried on Friday.
"It's getting bad when people can't even get out and walk around and exercise and walk down the street and visit neighbors without wondering if they're going to make it back home or not," said Jerry Lee, Cindy's brother.
Williams is being held in the Harnett County Jail without bond. He is charged with first degree murder.
If you would like to help the four young children who are left without a mother, you can go to any First Federal Bank and donate to the Cynthia Carol Lee Benefit Fund.
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