Woman Gets Shot After Jokingly Telling Man She Gave Him AIDS

(The Washington Examiner) A District man admitted to shooting a woman in the head with a shotgun after she jokingly told him that she had given him AIDS.

Forty-nine-year-old Lloyd E. Wilkins pleaded guilty Tuesday in D.C. Superior Court to aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and possession of an unregistered firearm.

Wilkins is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 3 by Judge Robert I. Richter. The crime of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence carries at least five years in prison. The maximum for aggravated assault is 10 years, and for possession of an unregistered firearm, it's up to a year.

According to authorities, on the evening of April 23, Wilkins and the woman with whom he had a romantic relationship began drinking alcohol at his home on the 4200 block of Eads Street Northeast. Wilkins and the woman had met through her cousin, police said.

They eventually had sex, and afterward the woman told Wilkins that she had given him the AIDS virus. She said she was joking.

Wilkins walked to his bedroom closet and retrieved a 12-gauge, single-shot shotgun. He pointed it at the woman's head, and the gun went off, striking the woman in the head, prosecutors said.

Wilkins called 911 to report that he shot someone. The woman called a friend to take her to a hospital.

When police arrived, Wilkins walked out of his home with his hands in the air and blood on his clothing, and told the officer he had shot someone.

"She gave me AIDS," Wilkins told the officer, according to the police report. Wilkins said he pointed the gun at the woman, but the gun "just went off."

Wilkins was taken to the 6th District police station for more questioning.

The woman's friend had picked her up before police got to the home and had taken her to the hospital, prosecutor said. Doctors performed extensive surgery and she survived, authorities said.

The woman remains deaf in her right ear as a result of the shooting and has undergone several extensive surgeries to mend her scalp.

Medical records show that the woman does not have HIV, prosecutors said.