Well-known Minneapolis chef shot in face with pellet gun while leaving her restaurant

On a busy holiday week noted for the food people share around the table, the grills sit idle at Wendy’s House of Soul.

“It’s devastating,” said Heather Warfield, who was talking about what happened to her sister, Wendy Puckett.

On Friday night, Puckett locked the doors of her business on Broadway Avenue in Minneapolis to go home.

She then walked out to her van.

“As she was getting in her van, she heard some giggling and turned her head and got shot in the face with what we now know is a pellet gun,” Warfield said.

Warfield says the pellet broke Puckett’s nose and got lodged under her eye. A surgeon now has to remove it.

“She’s in a lot of pain today physically and emotionally,” Warfield said. “There is a lot of pressure on her face, we don’t know if the pellet is moving or what is going on there.”

Cooking is Wendy’s element. She loves to do it, and loves sharing her good eats even more.

Just last week, she made a free dinner for elementary school students.

“She is an amazing woman,” Warfield said. 

It’s no surprise the community is now rallying around Puckett.

“The outpouring, it’s amazing,” Warfield said.

No arrests have been made at this time. 

There are two fundraising accounts that have been set up to help Puckett.

MetroTransit Police are working with Minneapolis police after learning three in-service buses were shot with a pellet gun around the same time Puckett was shot. Metro Transit says one bus shelter was also hit.

Police are working to determine if the incidents are related.