Top aide to former North Carolina lieutenant governor shot outside church on New Year’s Day

Krishana Polite is back home and recovering just two weeks after she was shot on New Year’s Day.
By Joshua Davis
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CLEMMONS, North Carolina (WXII) — A top aid to former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is back home and recovering just two weeks after she was shot on New Year’s Day.
“I looked in my right hand, and it was just covered in blood,” said Krishana Polite.
Polite, the former lieutenant governor’s chief of staff, was at St. Peter’s World Outreach Center in Winston-Salem, invited there with her mom to ring in the new year. Just minutes after midnight and while walking to her car, she heard what she thought were fireworks. The next moment, she was on the ground, shot in her neck.
“The next thing I remember was my mom looking over me and saying, ‘Kris!'” she said. “She was grabbing me, asking, ‘Where are you hurt?'”
Immediately, people rushed in to help.
“I remember, there was this guy, and he was just popping me in the face, saying, stay awake, stay awake,” Krishana said. “I said, ‘No, I’m just going to close my eyes just for a little bit, just for a little bit.’ He said, ‘No, you’re not going to do that.'”
Now, two weeks later, the bullet is still in her body, lodged in the back of her neck. Even with physical therapy, it’s difficult to move her left arm.
“That’s where all the nerves are and stuff,” she said. “So they didn’t want to mess with it, because they thought it might cause more damage, especially after the initial trauma. Bathing, dressing. I need help with all that, and I can’t drive.”
She’s praying investigators do everything they can to find who’s responsible. It’s a scenario she wouldn’t wish on anyone.
“I don’t think if it was random, that they should take it for granted,” she said. “Because it was at a church, everyone deserves to go to functions and be safe.”
St. Peter’s Church & World Outreach Center released a statement to WXII saying:
“As a church, we are committed to being a sanctuary of safety, love, and faith. A reckless and thoughtless act of discharging a firearm into the surrounding area during a celebratory moment resulted in an innocent person being injured in our parking lot. While it is believed that this act was not intended to cause harm, it serves as a sobering reminder of how dangerous such behavior can be.”
WXII has reached out to Winston-Salem police for more answers. They say they haven’t arrested anyone yet in this case, and it’s not clear if this was a random act or targeted considering Polite’s position. The investigation is ongoing, and the family has started GoFundMe to support her.
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