Forgiveness at the forefront for family who survived Benton Harbor drive-by shooting

It started as a family weekend; 55-year-old Philip Mills, a California resident, was in town with his wife to visit their cousins, including Mills’s cousin-in-law, Dwaine Chapdelaine, the senior pastor at Cornerstone Church in Portage, MI.

“They had never seen Lake Michigan, so we wanted them to experience the beauty of Lake Michigan and then some great food in St. Joe at one of our favorite restaurants that we stop at when we’re there. And after having dinner, we decided to head home,” said Chapdelaine.

On the way back, they decided to make a stop at a friend’s house near the Walgreens on Napier Ave. That person wasn’t home, so they hit the road again. Chapdelaine, his wife, and three children were in one vehicle leading the way while Philip and his wife were in another car following behind.

“Dwaine had made the right-hand turn first. We came up to the stop, my wife stopped, we looked, my wife made the right-hand turn, and pretty much right after the right-hand turn, I don’t know how many feet it would be, I just know that there was like an explosion in the car,” said Mills.

A popped tire was his wife’s first thought. She started to pull over, but alarm bells were ringing in Mills’s head. He knew it was a gunshot and told her to keep driving.

“I never thought in a million years somebody would be shooting at me, shooting at my wife, you know? So, she put her foot on the gas, and we started to take off and the moment we did that, just everything in the car started to explode, bullets were flying… it sounded like the guns were in the car,” said Mills.

For the seven in both cars, the seconds, maybe minutes of gunfire felt like an entirety. They kept driving with those bullets flying, then Mills heard his wife say, “I’m hit”. Moments later, he felt a punch in his back and his right leg goes numb. He had been shot in the back, while his wife received a through-and-through gunshot wound.

“I didn’t know how much time I had left, in my mind. You know, am I gonna pass out, am I gonna die? I felt blood on my back, I had no clue,” said Mills.

When they finally made it to a main road, the bullets stopped. They pulled into the Walgreens parking lot and within minutes, cops and ambulances surrounded them.

Miraculously, Chapdelaine and his family, who were leading the caravan were all unharmed. Mills still has the bullet in his back, the doctors leaving it in for the time being to prevent the possible damage removal could cause.

He fears he may be facing a permanent disability, but he and his wife were both released from the hospital and are recovering. Despite what he said is 54 bullet holes in total in his car, he is choosing forgiveness: happy to be alive.

“I want to express that while I don’t know who these people are, I didn’t see a single person, that I forgive them. This is not my burden to bear; this is their burden to bear. I’m not taking this home with me. I hope and pray that they’ll find God because this is not a lifestyle anyone should be living. This is a destructive lifestyle that will destroy them and their kids… we have broken people in our society that need healing, and our society is not capable of healing these broken people. This is only something that God can do. The only hope that our society has is a resurgence of God in our lives and in our homes,” said Mills.

“I know Philip has a bullet in his back, but I mean, we could be dead. And God just basically showed us he’s not done with us yet. You know, what Satan meant for evil, God was gonna work for good, and I’m thankful for that. I guess the hope that I have is that to some this may be frustrating and to some they want to look at, you know, all of the problems and talk about what’s wrong with everything, but I think the hope that we have is not to focus on what’s wrong with the community, what’s wrong with everybody, but to live what’s right and I believe Jesus is right,” said Chapdelaine.

Mills’s final message: be the good you want to see, “…love your family. Hold them close. We’re not promised tomorrow. Let bitterness go, don’t hold grudges. Don’t wait for something bad to happen to be reminded that you need to love those people. We may disagree with people and that’s okay, disagreement’s okay. Evil is not okay, and if we’re going to demonstrate to this world what good looks like, then we have to be the ones to demonstrate love and kindness, and I think people need to do that in their homes. Demonstrate it to your kids, and then your kids will demonstrate it to their family, and hopefully that love and that hope and that kindness will be demonstrated in the community,” shared Mills.