A Dekalb County woman is grateful to be alive after surviving a stray bullet striking her in the head while she was riding in a Lyft on the way home.
The shooting happened June 10 outside the East Perimeter Pointe Apartments on Snapfinger Woods Drive. The victim chose to withhold her name but spoke with Atlanta news station WAGA-TV about the harrowing incident that nearly took her life.
The woman told FOX 5 reporter Joi Dukes she was coming home from her new job. However, as her Lyft driver approached the front gate of her community, she noticed two men in cars arguing and got a “really bad” feeling.
“Next thing you know, we hear gunshots,” she said. “The three [bullets] hit his car, two hit me. The wig I had on stopped one, and one landed in my head. I have a bullet in my head right now.”
During her interview, the victim voiced appreciation for her driver, calling him a “hero.” She expressed that even amid the chaos, he risked his life to help render her aid.
“He came around the car—even though bullets were still flying—he came and got out of his car. One could’ve hit him [but] he held my hand and tried to keep me conscious until the ambulance got there,” she said.
The outlet states the woman was immediately taken to Grady Hospital after the shooting. While the bullet did penetrate her skull, it did not make it to her brain.
Doctors at Grady were unable to remove it, but the mother is thankful to be alive because “she knows the ordeal could’ve ended differently.”
“I had to pick up my belongings from the homicide department because nobody counting on my making it. God is real. I wouldn’t be here with my kids today if God wasn’t real.”
The victim shared that she lost her father to gun violence last year. Now with her own chilling experience, she hopes that senseless gun violence will soon end.
“My dad wasn’t in a bad neighborhood,” she said. “My dad was working on someone’s car. My message to people is: Things can be resolved without guns.”
Fox 5 states no arrests have been made in this case, but DeKalb County police are investigating.
