N.C. Woman Speaks Out After Ex-Husband Kills Her Partner and Then Dies in Police Shootout: 'I Thought I Was Going to Be Dead'

Mar. 15, 2025

A police car (stock image).Photo:Getty

Getty

“I have recently said to people, ‘It took me 67 years, but I finally got it right, found the right person.’ … I was very much in love.”

“I thought I was going to be dead,” she told the Raleigh outlet, noting that ex-husband Antonio Rodrigues certainly “could’ve killed me” but “opted not to.”

“We were face to face,” she recalled, “and I was pleading with him.”

Rohner divorced Rodrigues, 70, in 2014 after 20 years of marriage, and he has not left her alone since. Court records show that he had multiple convictions for stalking her, and she had a restraining order against him, local outletWRALreported. He also had a history of abuse, according to Rohner.

“He did not take me asking him for a divorce well at all,” she said, per WRAL. “So, 11 years ago, he actually had a gun to my temple at one point back then.”

After entering the living room, Rodrigues hit Rowe, 73, with a taser, prompting the pair to fight, Rohner recalled to the newspaper. Shortly after, he fled.

Rohner called 911 to report the incident around 5:39 p.m. local time, perRaleigh Police, but during the call, Rodrigues returned with a shotgun. He then broke down the back door of the home and shot Rowe,The News & Observerreported.

A Raleigh, North Carolina police cruiser.Travis Long/The News & Observer,/Tribune News Service via Getty

Travis Long/The News & Observer,/Tribune News Service via Getty

After Rohner ran to the garage, Rodrigues found her and told her that she “took everything from” him, though he did not physically harm her, per the newspaper. She ran back into the home, where Rowe was still alive, and police had arrived and instructed her to leave the home.

Rohner obliged, but found it difficult to do so as her love of two years was injured inside. “I wanted everything in my power to just drag [John] with me out of there,” she toldThe News & Observer. “I didn’t want to leave John.”

Rodrigues then shot at police from inside the home, prompting them to return fire and kill him, police toldThe News & Observer. A Raleigh police officer, Max Gillick, was injured in the altercation and taken to the hospital, where he remains in critical condition, according to police.

Rowe was also taken to the hospital, where he later died, the newspaper reported.

A retired family doctor, father and grandfather, Rowe was “just kind and sweet and generous and warm,” Rohner toldThe News & Observer. After years of abuse, intimidation and stalking at Rodrigues’s hands, she said that when she met Rowe, she finally felt safe.

“He was just that man that gave to the community, and he just had a lovely family,” Rohner told the newspaper, “which is part of what drew me to him: how well he got along with his kids and grandkids.”

Raleigh Police did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on Saturday, Jan. 25.

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Speaking withThe News & Observer, Rohner also expressed her frustration with the “system,” given Rodrigues’ long and recorded history of harassing her.

Court records show that in 2023, Rodrigues pleaded guilty to seven counts of stalking, stalking with a prior conviction and disclosing private images, but a judge suspended his prison sentence, instead ordering him to serve probation, the newspaper reported. He was also ordered to complete an abuser treatment program and a mental health assessment, plus discard any images of Rohner in his possession.

But he violated the rules and threatened Rohner, who told the newspaper that “eventually you just give up.” Since their 2014 split, she had pleaded to get him mental health assistance, fearing that “he could snap at any minute,” she said.

“I’m not blaming anybody. I’m not blaming the police, but the system fails,” she toldThe News & Observer. “I got a piece of paper to protect [me]. … He was on probation, he had an ankle bracelet and they took it off, and they shouldn’t have. They should have known where he was. Why did they take that off his ankle? Why?”

source: people.com