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Woman working with police to help find who shot her in face

ATLANTA — A northwest Atlanta woman shot in the face is speaking out hoping someone will help identify her attacker.

Mildred Kemp's jaw was shattered in four places. Wires now keep her face held together but keep her from being able to eat solid foods.

She showed Channel 2's Tony Thomas how she blends all her food up into a mush, and then pushes it through her wired teeth to eat.

"That's pretty much what I eat during the day every day, mashed potatoes and applesauce and soup," Kemp said.

Kemp spent three days in an induced coma and then nearly two more weeks in the hospital but said she came out with a much better attitude than before the shooting.

"Now I get up every morning, it's automatic, there is a smile on my face. 'Yeah, I'm alive.' Every day I say, 'Thank God.'" Kemp told Thomas.

Atlanta police said Kemp was shot May 30 while she, her younger brother and some relatives stopped at a convenience store on Joseph E. Boone on the city's northwest side.

Kemp said her brother tried to talk to a girl walking nearby and then a man walked up and pulled a gun.

She said her brother tried to pull away but the man and a second person fired several shots. One of them shattered the back window where Kemp was sitting.

"When I heard the window break, I immediately jumped over on my brother, I pushed his head down. I was just trying to protect him from being hit," Kemp said.

Her brother escaped unharmed, but a bullet hit her in the jaw. It remains there today.

"They said they can't remove the bullet because it will do more nerve damage to my face," Kemp said. "I didn't deserve to be shot."

She now wants to help police find the man who shot her. Kemp said she didn't get a good look at his face but remembers he had miniature dreadlocks and tattoos on his face.

Through all the pain, Kemp said she has grown to be a happier person.

Mildred's family has set up a fund to try to help pay for her continuing medical bills. Donations can be made at any Bank of America branch in care of the Mildred Kemp Fund.