A 23-year-old woman is recovering in hospital after she was shot in the head on Nov. 2 around 2:45 a.m. – a shooting Winnipeg police have said is connected to a lengthy armed standoff which occurred in the northwest part of the city last Friday.

Nicole Rondeau’s boyfriend, Dustin Fagnan, said Rondeau was hit by five or six pellets from a single shotgun blast and has lost sight in one eye.

Fagnan said it happened when people unknown to the couple showed up outside the family’s Flora Avenue home demanding drugs and tried forcing their way inside.

“It’s just very shocking,” said Fagnan. “It’s just so traumatic.”

Fagnan and Rondeau were at home with their two young daughters, ages one and three, when the shooting occurred — a shooting which has left Fagnan shaken because he said they had no drugs and don’t know the suspects.

“They kept trying to ask for drugs and they mentioned a name that sent them there,” said Fagnan. “We’re like, ‘We don’t know nobody by that name. Leave right now. I’m going to call the cops.’

“They started kicking in our door that’s when me and my girlfriend ran to our inside door – there’s two doors – one on the inside and one to get into our suite. We had gone to that door and they were kicking and kicking it and I was in front of that door.”

As the ordeal continued, Fagnan said Rondeau noticed their oldest daughter walk out of a bedroom and went to put her back in the room.

“Just as she was turning back again after she pushed her away the gunshot went off through the door and about five or six pellets grazed her face,” said Fagnan. “Two of them got her in the eye. She’s losing eyesight in one of her eyes.”

Investigators said the shooting is connected to an armed standoff at a home on Chudley Street on Nov. 2 which lasted 12 hours.

Officers said three suspects were socializing at the home when they decided to leave with the intention of robbing a woman with a sawed-off shotgun.

Police said Thursday it’s not known if Rondeau is the woman they intended to rob.

Fagnan said he and Rondeau had just moved into the home Sep. 1 and plan to get a new place because of what happened.

Officers arrested a 15-year-old boy, an 18-year-old man and 22-year-old man in connection with the shooting on Flora Avenue. The suspects have since been charged with numerous criminal offences.

A sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun was seized from the home on Chudley Street.