HUMAN SHIELD
Goon grabs gal & gets her shot
SHE STOPPED for a late-night bite, and a cowardly ex-con nearly made it her last meal.
Career criminal Tysheen Gott used the innocent woman as a human shield when a gunman tried to execute him inside a cramped Queens restaurant last weekend, sources told the Daily News.
The woman, struck three times as the convicted drug dealer forced her directly into the line of fire, was recovering Tuesday from her gunshot wounds.
“All the bullets went in and out,” the woman recounted to the Daily News. “I am in a lot of pain. . . . Everything happened so fast.”
The woman was chatting on her phone with a friend about 12:30 a.m. Saturday when she heard “what sounded like firecrackers” followed by terrified screams inside the Rico Chimi restaurant.
She suddenly felt a man’s hands grab her amid the frenzy of fear — and she was yanked until she was standing directly between Gott and the would-be killer.
The intended target “grabbed me, to use me as a human shield to protect himself,” the 32-yearold victim told The News. “I struggled to fight him off so I could be out of the line of fire.”
The gunman, whose motive remained unclear, never flinched — even after Gott began using the woman as flesh-andblood body armor inside the Dominican eatery. He squeezed off at least a half-dozen shots before fleeing the crime scene on Atlantic Ave. between Ashford and Warwick Sts. in Woodhaven.
The woman asked not to be identified because the shooter was still being sought late Tuesday.
The victim, who had gone out to do laundry and grab a quick meal, recalled how a bleeding Gott collapsed to the floor when the shooting finally stopped.
She soon realized that he was not the only victim.
“I looked down on my pants and realized I had blood on me,” the victim said. “I felt a burning in my hip all of a sudden, and when I put my hand on the area and pulled it away, my hand was covered in blood.
“I kept repeating to my friend, ‘I got shot, I got shot,’ ” she recalled.
She was wounded three times — twice in her left leg, and once in her hip. Gott dodged those three bullets, but was hit by four others — one in the pelvis, one in the groin and two in the left leg.
After the shooting, Gott covered up his cowardice by never mentioning the wounded woman to police, according to sources.
Gott has 29 prior arrests, including busts for gun possession, drug possession and criminal sale of a controlled substance. He served more than two years in prison for attempted criminal drug sales in Brooklyn.
Both the wounded woman and Gott, 39, were taken to Jamaica Hospital. The victim said she never set eyes on Gott until he nearly got her killed.
Gott, who hasn’t been charged with putting the woman in harm’s way, said he was in the neighborhood to drop off some gifts for his son.
I felt a burning in my hip ... and when I put my hand on the area ... my hand was covered in blood. Queens victim