Woman kidnapped, shot by her ex: 'I had no intentions to die'
DALLAS - A mother shot by the father of her children during last week's RV after being kidnapped is sharing her story of survival. She says she had no choice but to risk everything and jump out of the speeding RV to save her life.
Candice Price remains in the hospital and still has scars from the terrifying ordeal. She detailed how she and her two children were kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend, Tony Kelly.
Price is making amazing progress considering all she's been through. She says the nightmare started at a church in Garland, where she met up with Kelly to pick up their two kids. They got into an argument, drove over to a storage facility in Dallas to pick up his RV, and that's when things took a turn for the worst.
“He was a ticking time bomb,” she said. “I didn't know how that was going to play out.”
From her hospital bed, 33-year-old Candice Price opened up about the argument with Kelly that set of a series of terrifying events that began Wednesday, May 24 and went into the next morning.
The fight was about a soiled diaper. Price says Kelly failed to change it while taking care of the boys. By the time the four of them arrived at a Dallas storage facility where Kelly kept his RV, Price says he was furious.
“He goes and he grabs my son. And I'm holding him for dear life, like, just let go of him,” she recalled. “And he yanked him out of my arm, and he locked them up in the RV. And then, he loads up my other son. I can't really remember, but I end up in the RV.”
Price says Kelly zip-tied her hands and taped her mouth shut. And minutes after the ordeal started, she was able to get loose, ran out of the RV and crossed the street to a stranger's apartment. She banged on the front door begging for help.
“Tony has a gun in his hand, and he pointed right at his temple,” she said. “And the guy put his hands up like, ‘I don't want to lose my life.’”
Kelly took Price back to the RV and headed east. That's when she remembers getting shot, once in both legs. Price says Kelly told her she was going to die.
“When he said today was the day, he was meaning it. Today was the day,” she said.
Despite being in extreme pain, Price says she tried to keep calm as Kelly was driving around through several counties. She was determined to stay alive.
“I'm just holding his hand telling him how much I love him and this don't have to go down like this. I'll just tell someone I got robbed. I don't know anything. Just let me go,” Price pleaded to him. “I convinced him to let me call my mom to say goodbye to her. I ended up texting 911. And sure enough, they replied back immediately. They're like, ‘Where your whereabouts?’ Something like that.”
The Hunt County Sheriff's Office received the text around 2:30 a.m. Minutes later, Caddo Mills police officers spotted the RV on I-30 near the Hunt-Rockwall County line.
Price heard the sirens. With her two sons asleep in the back of the RV, she decided to take drastic action.
“I immediately jumped out the window. I held on for a little bit, kind of like drug my feet across the pavement,” she recalled. “I don't know if he shot me as I was hanging out the window. I know I got a bullet hole in my back. I just don't remember too well. God had his hands on me that night because we were going so fast, and I just let go. I had no intentions to die.”
Price hit the pavement face first, shattering her jaw and fracturing her hips. Kelly continued to drive on as he was being chased by law enforcement. He finally came to a stop in Arlington when spikes disabled the RV.
Kelly tossed his two boys out the door as the RV caught fire moments before police believe he fatally shot himself.
Price is grateful they're alive.
“I'm so thankful these people had this 911 text,” she said. “I'm so glad. I'm so lucky, and I'm blessed that God spared me for some reason. He has another reason for me to be here. He wants me here a little longer.”
Price's two boys are currently in CPS custody. She says she's determined to make a full recovery so she can fight to get them back.
Price had two metal plates put in her jaw in order to reconstruct it. Next week, she'll have three broken teeth replaced.
The family has started a GoFundMe page to help with medical expenses.