- I was shot six years ago,
at San Francisco Pride during the parade.
- I was shot in Los Angeles.
- I didn't understand or comprehend
what had happened or why.
- Started hearing some yelling
and kind of fighting behind me,
so I looked and there was about eight guys there.
And I saw one of them pull out a gun,
and I jumped over a barricade to try and hide,
and I got shot in mid-air,
as I was trying to hide.
- I was a driver for a company.
I was stopped at a red light.
All of a sudden, shots rang off.
A couple of shots into it,
my rear window shatters,
and that's when I end up getting shot.
- I was actually throwing a party that night.
I was standing right by the front steps of the house.
There was a really, really loud noise.
I didn't fall or black out or anything,
but I was turned around when I opened my eyes,
and I opened my mouth and,
I had invisalign,
the invisalign fell out in my hand...
And my teeth.
- I looked down,
and my jeans that I was wearing
literally had ripped off me
from how swollen my leg had gotten.
The seams were ripped,
there was blood spewing out,
and I, I thought immediately,
I thought I was in a cartoon.
I just was thinking some sick joke had happened,
but it was very, very real.
- Honestly, I wanted to drive home.
At the time, I had, my oldest was seven months old,
and I was like, I can't die here. (laughs)
- My jaw was almost unhinged,
it was down to about two inches lower
than it should be, I guess,
and I couldn't see the bullet hole.
All I could see were that my teeth were missing
and there was just a lot of blood coming out of my mouth.
- The bullet itself exploded in my leg,
so half the bullet came out,
and half was lodged inside,
right next to my femoral artery.
It felt like, you know, shards of glass
were going all throughout my leg.
- So I didn't realize at the time,
but I ended up getting hit
three times in my lower back.
It was like this intense heat,
like somebody put you in a pot
and just started boiling you,
it was just hot.
After that, I just lost consciousness.
- I felt impact when the bullet actually entered,
and that's what turned me around.
I didn't feel any actual pain
until after the drugs wore off
and the shock wore off,
but it was more shocking than anything.
- I actually woke up in a surgery table,
when they were inserting a chest tube.
That is like the most pain
I've ever felt in my life,
and I just grabbed the surgeon and I said,
you can't let me die, I can't die here.
I can't die.
- The drugs started wearing off,
and I experienced the first, like, pain.
It was just like, a really, really,
like, sharp burning pain,
right on the bottom of my face,
and it just felt like it was on fire.
It just, it hurt so bad, and they said,
well yeah, you've been shot in the face.
- I was in the hospital just for two or three days,
then I got discharged to a hotel close by.
I had a really sensitive surgery,
and reconstructive surgery,
I had stitches all the way up and down my right leg.
I couldn't actually walk for at least six months,
my parents had to take care of me
and bathe me and feed me.
It was like going back to being a baby.
- My chin was shattered
and my mandible was broken,
so they had to remove the debris,
the teeth, the bone,
from the bottom of my mouth,
and they put a plate in my jaw
to hold the mandible together.
I didn't really leave my house too often after that.
- Once I left the hospital,
then I was just, wasn't who I was before.
Now it's just, every day I wake up,
I thank God, and I can see, I can walk,
and, you know, I just kind of have that attitude now.
- The emotional afterfact or aftermath of it
was, it was really hard.
I still struggle with it today, actually.
Crowds always set a trigger for me,
they're a huge trigger.
I get anxiety, panic attacks.
I constantly am scanning the room that I'm in.
If I meet somebody,
I look at their pockets, what's in their hand.
It's really exhausting,
but I feel like it puts me in a safer place overall.
- Physically... (chuckles)
It's very expensive to replace teeth.
And I'm working on that now, still,
so many years later.
Emotionally, I feel...
I mean, I'm at peace with it.
It's something that happened,
and I had to deal with.
- So I don't know who shot me.
They did not get caught,
and it really pains me to know
that he's still out there somewhere.
But I saw his face, I know what he looks like.
I've had a lot of nightmares with his face in it.
If I saw him again,
I actually think about this a lot,
I would let him know that I forgive him,
'cause obviously he grew up in some way
that made him angry like that,
so now I forgive him.
- Nobody was ever caught.
I kind of look at it as a, it's kind of cliched,
but I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.
I don't even spend a minute thinking about the shooter,
it's just not my concern.
- From what I heard,
it was two younger kids.
It didn't sound like anything was really done
to provoke them to have done that,
and you don't know if you killed someone,
and that's gotta make you crazy.
I hope it was enough to scare them straight
and they did something better with their life.
- You know, it really brings back memories
all the time, seeing all these issues
and watching the news and seeing these shootings.
It just really, really is painful to watch.
To anyone who's gone through this
sort of situation and pain,
just know that you're not alone.
- So many people have stories to tell about being shot.
Honestly, something has to be done,
'cause it's not okay for people to be scared
to leave their house, to go to school.
That's not a way anybody should have to live.