Shooting victim: I worried about kids
A woman shot in the face in her living room when bullets that shattered her window Saturday night says she’s not afraid for herself — but she wants parents of gun-toting youth to intervene and make the violence stop.
“I want people to get help,” the woman told the Herald yesterday, her face swollen with stitches and dried blood on the track of bullet carved along her jaw.
“I want parents to be accountable for their grown children because they know they’re doing things that are against the law . ... It’s just about how you raise your kids — the values that you have.”
The longtime Dudley Street resident was hosting a small gathering Saturday night when bullets smashed through her home’s windows, one striking her jaw before lodging in her chest.
The 52-year-old woman, who declined to give her name, said it was a miracle she survived when multiple shots rang out on the street and bullets made way into her living room Saturday night about 8:30.
“Oh, my God, I got shot up! I covered up my face,” the woman recalled. But said she was more concerned about the safety of two children in the apartment.
“I worried about the young ones. I have more years behind me than in front of me. They have more years in front of them than behind them.”
Bullet holes yesterday were visible on a flatscreen TV in her living room, as well as on a wall, a few feet higher.
The woman said doctors told her it was safer to keep a bullet lodged into her chest than to remove it.
She doesn’t know what prompted the shooting.
“I really don’t know. It’s a puzzle to me. I’m trying to know why,” she said. “I don’t bother nobody. I’m not in the streets.”
Police Commissioner William B. Evans said his officers are investigating the disturbing shooting and believe the woman shot was hit by an errant bullet.
“We’re still looking at that troubling shooting. Clearly, we believe the house was targeted and not her. We’re working hard on the case to determine who’s responsible. Thank God nobody died. And let’s hope going into the holiday week and the Christmas season that we don’t have any more tragedy.”
The woman said she doesn’t believe her home was targeted, because the adults there are older professionals. She said she doesn’t hold animosity toward the shooter or shooters.
“I’m not even angry, I’m just more worried about everybody else,” she said. “This is not about retaliation, this is about a life lesson. Even if you’re in a gang, it’s time to grow up. It’s time to prosper the right way.”
The woman, who has called Dudley Street her home for more than a decade, said violence in her neighborhood has her thinking about finding a new home.
“I got to go. I’m moving. I’m moving to the country,” she said.