ST. PAULS, N.C. — Shots fired into a house Tuesday morning killed a woman who was inside asleep. The woman's son said the bullets may have been meant for him.

In the middle of the night, on a usually quiet road in the heart of Robeson County, gunshots broke the silence. Shaun Revels and his mother, Jennie, were home sleeping when a bullet ripped through her bedroom wall.

"And then I heard Mama say: 'Owww,'" Shaun said. "I ran into there to her and told her I loved her, and I didn't want her to leave, and she died on me."

Sean Revels assumed the shooter was gunning for him.

"I've done some things I shouldn't have," he said, "and there's probably some people that don't like me a whole lot."

Many are stunned by the death of Jennie Revels, a mother who liked to read and a woman who worked for Robeson County as a secretary in the economic development office.

"It's a great loss for our county," said her boss, Gregory Cummings.

Friends and family spent the day at the Revels' house in disbelief.

"You know, you're in your own home, where you're supposed to be safe, sleeping in your own bed, sleeping for the night, waiting to get up the next morning, and something like that happens," said Jeffrey Revels, Jennie's son.

Some could not imagine the chance of something like this happening. Others did not want to.

"There's nothing like Mama dying in your arms," Sean Revels said.

Meanwhile, Robeson County deputies are investigating a similar case from December. Eleven-year-old Nicole Oxendine was killed when someone fired shots into her sister's home in the middle of the night.

Detectives believe Oxendine's sister's fiance may have been the target. But, they do not know why.

The sheriff's office said the two cases do not appear to be related.