MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Two people shot at downtown’s most popular park. One of the victims was an innocent bystander.
She told WREG she was with her children when a bullet pierced the side of her stomach.
It happened Sunday evening at Tom Lee Park on Riverside.
“I thank God,” she told WREG, asking to remain anonymous for safety reasons.
She was home from the hospital, on her couch and wrapped in a blanket when she relived the terror.
She says she took her children to the park Sunday evening to meet up with friends.
“I had been working so much lately, so I just decided I wanted to get out and enjoy the day. It was nice out,” she said. “I heard a gunshot, but it was so far off that it sounded like a firework or something.”
She then felt a sharp pain.
“I looked down. I saw a hole in my pants. That’s when I saw the bullet wound,” she said.
She realized she was just shot. She panicked. Her children screamed.
“They were so scared. They were really scared,” she said. “I was just praying to God that I make it. I just prayed I didn’t die.”
She went to the hospital where doctors told her the bullet pierced her three different places, and she was lucky it didn’t hit an organ.
Meanwhile, detectives also found a 17-year-old boy shot.
They said he exchanged fire with another group at the park, and his older brother tried to hide the gun.
It all happened right in the middle of large crowds and feet away from young children and families.
They didn’t care where the bullets went.
“Just out the blue I’m standing there, and I just got shot,” she said.
She’s just grateful the bullet chose her instead of her kids.
“It could have been worse. It could have been one of my kids or one of their friends, and I would rather take a bullet for them any day,” she said.
Police are still looking for at least two more people connected to this shooting.
