Texas Judge Is Happy to Be Alive 3 Years After Attempted Assassination

A Texas teenager made a harrowing 911 call in 2015 when his mother was shot in their driveway. Now the target of the assassination attempt, Texas Judge Julie Kocurek, is speaking out on that near-fatal day.

“I can remember thinking I’m going to die in front of my son,” she told Inside Edition. 

As they were pulling in the driveway, she saw a leaf bag blocking the gate and thought it was a prank. Everyone got out of the car, but the attacker was lying in wait and opened fire. 

The judge suffered multiple wounds on her face and arm. She also lost a finger.

The would-be assassin fled, but cops caught him after he bragged about the shooting to friends.

The suspect: Chimene Onyeri, who had Kocurek had previously sentenced to probation for bank fraud.

Three years later, Kocurek is sharing her story on "48 Hours."

"This is a stunning, riveting, brutal, hour of television. Imagine being shot in your own car in your own driveway with your 15-year-old son right there,” Jim Axelrod of "48 Hours" told Inside Edition. 

"She hadn’t sent him to prison, she hadn’t sent him to jail, she simply put him on parole and that was for credit card fraud. So she really was surprised when she found out who it was that had been targeting her,” Axelrod told Inside Edition. 

"Live To Tell: The Vendetta” airs Saturday, April 13, on CBS. 

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