What began as a jealous argument almost turned deadly for a Key Largo man involved with a woman in an open marriage, Monroe County police say.

Candice Lee, 37, allegedly shot her former lover, Shakir Muilam, 45, with a .22-caliber rifle after the two argued over her relationship with a new boyfriend, said Deputy Becky Herrin, spokeswoman with the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

Lee and her husband, whom the Sheriff's Office did not identify, are in an open relationship, which allows them to have other sexual partners, Herrin said.

Lee and Muilam were in a relationship but broke up recently. However, she and her husband allowed Muilam to live with them when he was diagnosed with cancer.

While living with her husband and Muilam, Lee began a new relationship with yet another man. Muilam found Lee and her boyfriend talking early Thursday outside of their home at 217 St. Croix Pl. and became angry, according to police. Lee reportedly told Muilam that if he didn't approve of her new relationship, he could move out. Sometime during the argument, Lee reportedly fell and hit her head.

She went inside the house and came back outside with the rifle and pointed it at Muilam. Lee told investigators that as she and Muilam argued, he reached behind himself and she shot him in the thigh.

Lee said she ran to her next-door neighbor's home to call the police. She then ran back to her home and applied pressure to Muilam's wound.

When deputies arrived, Lee pointed to where the gun was leaning up against a bookshelf. Deputies booked Lee into jail, where she is being held on no bond facing a charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.