Detroit mom shot 7 times by ex survives, but loses best friend

DETROIT (WJBK) - Sabrina Cotton was shot seven times by her ex-boyfriend but survived. She was trying to save her friend and her friend's child when the man burst in and started shooting. She's hoping her message will get to other victims of abuse: get out.

"I looked down and saw my baby in a pool of blood and she was crying and I didn't know if it was coming from her," she said. "And I saw my best friend on the floor."

Just seconds before seven bullets pierced her body, the 29-year-old woman said she realized her best friend, 27-year-old Sherrol White, was gone. 

"She wasn't just my best friend. She was my child's godmother."

Friend killed while sheltering girlfriend, child of shooter in Detroit: police

It was just before one Monday morning when Cotton says White stopped by her home on Detroit's Wreford street. She knew Cotton's ex-boyfriend, 37-year-old Michael Larkins, had been threatening her again.

"I did everything I could to try and help her. I told her 'you can't come right now. He's acting crazy'," she said. 

She said Larkins was abusive and was again violating the personal protection order. He was outside the home and calling her over and over. They said they called for police.

"When we called 911, 911 didn't answer the phone. (We got a message that) said there's a wait time," Cotton said.

Cotton dated him but left him in April after she became pregnant. 

"Once he found out I was pregnant, he pushed me down the stairs. That was it."

Cotton had been staying at a shelter and says she hadn't spoken to Larkins much until giving birth to the little girl she named Faith. The girl isn't even two weeks old. 

On Monday, Larkins accused Cotton of cheating and threatened to kill both her and Faith. Once he was inside the house, Cotton screamed for White to hold Faith and tried to call 911 again.

"Before we could do that, he came barging through the window. He held me down execution-style and got the phones," she said he threatened to kill everyone, including himself.  "He overpowered me, he overpowered everybody once that gun came out."

While being held down, Cotton said she heard a single gunshot before the gun was turned to her. She said that shot  killed White.

"He shot me seven times and when he shot me in the back of the head, I thought I was dead."

Cotton said she blacked out and only remembers walking out of the home to a sea of police. 

She's now recovering in the hospital and says only later she learned Larkins killed himself and her best friend.

"She should still be here and not me. I know she's looking down on us."

She said she's praying for White's family and trying to stay strong for Faith, who remains at Children's hospital, after suffering from hypothermia. Cotton says she can't bear the thought of another woman going through what she has. She calls her survival a miracle. 

"Do whatever you can to get out."