MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A Mississippi mother says she and her five-year-old son were shot at on I-240 Wednesday while traveling home from her son’s chemotherapy.
Aurora Lopez said she and her son, who is battling brain cancer, make monthly trips to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. As they were traveling home from the hospital around 7 p.m. Wednesday, her SUV was hit by a bullet.
“It sounded like a pop,” said Lopez.
Lopez said she couldn’t see any damage but after calling police, she said an officer noticed what looked to be a bullet hole in her rear bumper.
“He was like, ‘Have you noticed that hole in your car?’ It was on the bumper in the bottom and I was like, ‘No, sir,’” said Lopez.
There have been at least four other shootings on Memphis freeways this week, including two on I-240 near Getwell.
A woman told police that another driver who was upset that she had passed him followed her north on I-240 and onto the Union exit ramp Wednesday morning. There, she said he pulled alongside her, brandished a gun, and fired a shot into the air.
Lopez said before her vehicle was shot, she was also followed by the shooter.
“I was like someone’s following me, I’m scared,” she said.
Lopez said she doesn’t know what might have provoked the other driver but that he seemed determined to stay in the lane next to her. She said he changed lanes when she did and consistently matched her speed.
“He was right beside me, I couldn’t lose him. He was just following me,” she said.
Lopez said the shooter continued to follow her even after shooting her SUV. She said she finally lost him by slowing down, but that he wasn’t able to because there was a car behind him.
She describes the vehicle as black with tinted windows and believes it may have been an older model Chevy Impala.