Greenwood - The victim of a deadly domestic dispute in Greenwood is now talking about how she was beaten, hit by a car, and burned out of her home three weeks ago.
"You know, it doesn't even feel like it ever happened. It's like a nightmare," said Theresa Johnson.
The nightmare of April 20 hasn't ended for the 29-year-old mother. That day, Theresa and her children nearly died at the hands of her boyfriend, 33-year-old Jerry "Brian" Bobb.
"I don't know why he did it. And I can't explain to anyone why he did it," Johnson said. "But I know when I walked through the door that day, it started a three-hour rampage."
She said the couple got into a verbal argument, when Bobb suddenly, violently attacked her.
Johnson described the hours-long beating as terrifying.
"He clotheslined me out of my recliner. He looked at me, grabbed me by my hair, shoved my head into the floor and said, 'Don't move!' That's when he walked into my kitchen and he grabbed two knives and he came back in, put one to my throat the other to my side," she said. "He said, 'I'm done. I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore. I don't want to be here anymore.' He was going to kill me and he made that perfectly clear."
Investigators say Bobb broke Johnson's hand and foot, then stabbed her in the chest as she ran out of the apartment with her oldest daughter. As Theresa tried to flee again, Brian Bobb hit her with his car.
"My daughter went in the air. I, of course, went over the car. She ended up in the grass. I ended up under the car in the water," Johnson said.
But the night was about to get worse. While family members dragged Theresa out from under the car in the creek, she had no idea that back at the apartment, Brian had set fire to her bedroom, with her infant daughter inside.
"I just kept yelling 'Where's the baby?' I didn't know about the fire. And the next thing I know, I heard gunshots," she said.
Neighbors had called Greenwood police to the chaos. They convinced Bobb to hand over Johnson's burned baby girl, and tried to subdue him with a TASER. But when he came after officers with a knife, they shot and killed him.
Johnson said she supports their decision to use deadly force.
"They did what they had to do. There was no stopping him," she said.
Johnson and her young daughter are still healing. She said she's learned a tough lesson about the dangers of domestic violence.
"I look back now and there were signs [about Bobb] that I probably should have noticed. Hindsight is always 20/20," Johnson said.
Now, she's just thankful she and her children survived that horrific night.
