IMMOKALEE, Fla. — A Collier County woman who survived getting shot 17 times is speaking out after her granddaughter was killed next to her.
Olga Welch and her granddaughter were shot in their car in Immokalee on September 16. Her granddaughter Laura Candia did not survive.
Candia was just 20 years old and had a three-year-old daughter. Her grandmother said she moved to Florida from Alabama to share custody with her ex-boyfriend Michael Maldonado, but now he is charged with her murder.
“She did not deserve to die like this, no not by this monster. He needs to be put in prison for good,” she said.
Welch said that on September 16 she and Candia were leaving their home near Lake Trafford Road and North 15th Street in Immokalee when Maldonado purposefully crashed into them.
Once they were stopped, “He put down the window on the backseat and he started shooting Laura on the passenger side and must’ve shot me and I went down,” she said.
Welch said Maldonado was upset because he wanted an extra day with their three-year-old daughter.
“I’m alive and I’m gonna get stronger, I’m gonna be strong for my great-granddaughter,” she said.
It won’t be easy, doctors couldn’t remove all 17 bullets from Welch’s body. One of them is still inside her forehead.
“Yesterday I had surgery on my head and surgery on my arm. I’m afraid to go out, I have to take anxiety pills and stress pills,” she said.
While remembering her granddaughter at a vigil, she said Candia loved to bake, eat ice cream and watch movies.
“She would love to watch scary movies curled up with little blankets in our jammies all the time, that’s all we did,” said Welch.
She also provided for her daughter, by working at the Dollar General store.
“The other day we go to Dollar General because that’s where she was gonna transfer from Alabama to here and the first thing she saw was the store and she goes ‘Mommy’ she thought we were picking up mommy,” said Welch.
Candia’s daughter was not in the car with them during the shooting. Welch and other family members are taking care of her.