Equestrian Lauren Kanarek remembers feeling surprisingly normal after being shot twice in the chest by her Olympic horse trainer. She even dialed 911 herself.
"When you're shot at point blank range, and bullets just go through you, you're still walking around. The damage is happening, but you're not feeling it happening," she told The Post.
However, the shots -- fired by Michael Barisone, 62, at his farmhouse in Long Valley, New Jersey, the culmination of a dispute about Kanarek and her fiancé living there -- had punctured her lung and she was undergoing a serious medical emergency.
"Your lungs are filling up with blood, they're getting ready to collapse. Your adrenaline is so high. You know you can't run because bullets run faster. You know you have to do anything you can in that moment to stop what's happening. That was the reality," she said.
Police officers happened to be less than a mile down the road and were able to treat the wound, Kanarek, 44, remembered. She flatlined twice in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.
"If things didn't happen that exact way, I wouldn't be here to tell the story today. I would be dead," Kanarek said of first responders' proximity on August 7, 2019.
"I've been shot in the heart. Michael Barisone shot me," Kanarek can be heard saying in the 911 call she placed. Robert Goodwin, her fiancé, can be heard struggling with Barisone and trying to subdue him in the background, alongside their barking dog.
Barisone was arrested and charged with two counts of attempted murder of and two counts of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. He went to jail for two and a half years as he awaited trial and was facing a 60-year prison sentence if convicted.
Kanarek was placed in a medically induced coma and underwent surgery to repair damage to her left lung.
In April 2022, a jury in Morris County, NJ, found Barisone not guilty by reason of insanity on one count of first-degree attempted murder and one count of second-degree possession of a weapon. He was acquitted on the other counts.
Barisone had claimed Kanarek and Goodwin breached a verbal agreement to leave the farm after they were finished with horse training. His trial attorney argued he was driven temporarily insane by alleged mental abuse toward him from Kanarek.
Psychiatrists diagnosed Barisone with a delusional disorder and persistent depressive disorder which, his defense argued in court, fueled a mental break. He maintained he "blacked out" and didn't remember the shooting at all.
Barisone also had a long-term history of mental health struggles, including depression and anxiety. He was sent to Anne Klein Forensic Center psychiatric hospital in Trenton, NJ, for evaluation before being transferred to Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Morris Plains where he remained until his release in November 2023.
His release was granted under conditions that he remain in New Jersey, get regular treatment from a psychologist, and refrain from contacting Kanarek. He was also forbidden to possess firearms.
He's not, however, prevented from speaking to film crews and recounting the events of that day, as he does in "Untold: The Shooting at Hawthorne Hill," from Netflix, out April 21.
Kanarek, who is also in the documentary, claims the film's production company, Propagate, have twisted the truth for ratings and paint her as the instigator of the violent incident, although she admits she has not yet seen the final cut of the movie.
"They tried to recast a villain as some victim and that's just not how it is," Kanarek told The Post.
"To me there's no, 'He said. She said.' A man tried to kill two people. That's what happened. There's no other part of the story that matters besides that.
"This man is so dangerous -- a villain. They're trying to make him into a sympathetic character. That's what the trailer [of the documentary] is doing."
The Post has reached out to Barisone, his attorney and Propagate for comment but received no reply.
Kanarek was an up-in-coming dressage rider in 2018 when she met Barisone in Wellington, Fla. at a competition.
The daughter of Wall Street attorney Jon Kanarek and data center expert Kirby Kanarek, she jumped at the chance to train with Barisone, who had been a member of the 2008 US Olympic team.
She and Goodwin moved her horses from her home in North Carolina to Barisone's sprawling, 60-acre Hawthorne Hill farm with, and they lived on an apartment at the property.
After a flood in the main farmhouse occurred, Barisone tried to evict Kanarek and Goodwin so he and his own fiancé could live in their apartment, she claims. When they refused to leave, tensions grew.
Ugly accusations were made on both sides. Kanarek's provocative past of spats with people on social media was highlighted and Barisone contacted some of the people she'd argued to build a legal case againstKanarek and Goodwin and evict them.
Barisone, according to a telephone report by charity SafeSport, told Kanarek one day: "I am the big bad wolf, I am the bully," while, she claims, spitting in her face, screaming and yelling at her.
Kanarek also maintained she told SafeSport Barisone would make sexist and derogatory comments, and expressed her worries about him on Facebook.
"I'm being bullied by a 6'3" man," Kanarek wrote on the site on Aug. 2, 2019, five days before the shooting. "Bullied to the point I'm afraid," she added.
Before the shooting, police were also called to the farm at least six times, by all parties: Kanarek, her family and Barisone.
In the week leading up to the shooting, Barison phoned 911, accusing Kanarek and Goodwin of trespassing, failing to pay rent and harassment, according to NJ.com, which obtained a recording of the call.
"This is a war and it's going to be dealt with right now. I've had enough of these people. I need them gone," Barisone reportedly said on July 31, according to the news site.
Barisone also told the dispatcher Kanarek and Goodwin were squatters living at his farm without a lease or paying rent. He called them: "Clients who have become a menace to us. These people are destroying our lives. These people are insane," according to the 911 call.
Barisone has been banned from dressage by the US Center for SafeSport's disciplinary database for sexual harassment, emotional misconduct and violating the National Governing Body for Equestrian Sports bylaws. However, he is able to appeal.
"There's not been one apology," Kanarek told The Post.
She and Goodwin now live happily together in Florida and she says she's not going to let the trauma of her past hinder her from re-establishing her riding career.
"I will not go away quietly. It's a blessing and an honor that I get to continue riding despite everything that's happened," Kanarek said.