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WATONGA, Oklahoma (KOCO) -- Oklahoma plans to execute a murderer on Thursday, Wendell Grissom, who shot two women near Watonga 20 years ago.
One of them made it out alive.
"I had gunpowder all embedded in me from that — this gun he could not have reloaded quickly. This gun he could,” said Dreu Kopf, showing off guns after fighting off Grissom.
Grissom, a stranger, invaded her home in 2005. He shot her at least three times.
"When he shot me for the last time with the 44 black powder, it blew me off of him. I was straddled on top of him on the couch. And I think that he thought that that was, you know, the end. And so, I ran out and went through the garage, and I screamed at him to follow me,” Kopf said.
She wanted him to spare her children and her friend, Amber Matthews, who were in another room.
"Here's Amber's blood on Gracie … blood stained on her head,” Kopf said.
Matthews was holding Gracie Kopf, a baby, when Grissom shot Matthews twice, killing the 23-year-old woman. Rylee Kopf, a toddler, was in her crib near them.
"I'm going to start crying again. I think it just shows you the type of person that she was. Because a lot of people wouldn't have done what she did. Wouldn't have ran to our defense," said Rylee Kopf.
Grissom admitted to the murder, saying he didn’t know why he did it. Now, after years on death row, he’s scheduled to die on Thursday. His accomplice, Jessie Johns, will spend the rest of his life in prison.
"You know, Jessie Johns was hitchhiking when Grissom picked him up, and that was his sign. But this shows you how secluded my house was. I mean, this is my house,” said Dreu Kopf.
In a video of the house from 20 years ago, KOCO 5 interviewed Drew Kopf not long after the attack.
“If you had a chance to talk to your accused attacker, what would you say to him right now?” KOCO 5 reporter Jessica Schambach asked at the time.
"I think I’d want him to know that he's a coward, and I’m OK with him choosing me because I won his battle, and he's not gonna do this to anyone else,” Dreu Kopf said
She said she tried to make contact with Grissom years ago, but he denied the request.
"Do you feel like a piece of you was taken away that day?" Shambach asked.
"Absolutely. And it's hard to get back. And I probably won't ever get it back,” Dreu Kopf said. “Just a part of. It's a part of such a evil, evil crime that Wendell chose to do that day. Like he didn't just kill my best friend or shoot me. He took so much from me and my kids. So much."
"I’m 19, and I can't stay alone to this day. Like it has definitely shaped us to just be scared,” Gracie Kopf said.
Dreu Kopf and her daughters plan to watch Grissom take his last breath.
"That's our mom. You did that to our mom. I think he deserves way worse than what he's getting,” Gracie Kopf said.
"We're lucky enough to live in a place that is forcing him to take accountability,” Rylee Kopf said.
"I hope I walk out of that day with a little piece of me back, a chapter that will be closed,” Dreu Kopf said.
It’s a bittersweet time as Dreu Kopf’s husband, the father of her daughters, won’t be there for support. He was killed in an oil field accident just a few years ago.
She said she’s anxious as she waits to watch Grissom die.
