× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

An 82-year-old woman was shot while lying in bed early Tuesday morning when bullets pierced walls and windows of her home during an eruption of gunfire that damaged two other houses on a normally quiet street in Henrico County.

The gunfire unfolded shortly before 3 a.m. and struck the three homes and a car in the 1800 block of Watts Lane, located east of Mechanicsville Turnpike and south of Harvie Road.

Vanessa Rice takes care of three older women at the house where the 82-year-old was shot in her left arm while she was in her first-floor bedroom. The gunshot broke a bone, but she was expected to recover and to undergo surgery later in the day, Rice said Tuesday.

Rice had been sleeping upstairs when the shooting started. She called 911 and went down the steps and turned on the light in the bedroom where the woman had been wounded. The victim was in her bed and said her arm was wet and it was hurting.

“All these gunshots were in her wall,” said Rice, who broke into tears as she recounted the ordeal. “I tried to keep everybody calm.”

Clarence Washington, whose mother owns the house, said the bullet that pierced the woman’s arm apparently lodged in her bed frame. Rescue personnel moved her from the bed to an ambulance and took her to the hospital, he said.