‘I thought I was done,’ says ma hit by stray shot

A Brooklyn mom is amazed she’s still alive after being struck in the head by a stray bullet just as she was arriving home from a weekend jaunt to Baltimore.

Nickie Hamer, a 35-year-old nurse, was back early from her trip and excited to surprise her four children about 8 p.m. Sunday.

But before going inside, she and her boyfriend stopped to check on her car, which she had left parked while away outside her home in Brownsville’s Tilden Houses. That’s when shots rang out. “I heard two gunshots,” Hamer told the Daily News. “I took off running, and I think the third shot hit me. It felt like someone plunked me in the head.”

Her boyfriend grabbed her and pulled her down between parked cars for cover.

“I looked up to see my daughter, and I had a hole in my head,” Hamer said. “I saw a lot of blood. I thought I was done.”

They jumped back into a car and rushed to Brookdale University Hospital. She believes her braids helped protect her skull from a much worse injury.

“The doctors said that I’m lucky that it didn’t hit my skull,” Hamer said. “If it wasn’t me, it would have been my (17-yearold) daughter. All I could remember was my daughter screaming, ‘My mommy got shot! My mommy got shot!’ ”

A day after the terrifying incident, Hamer was back home but still shaken up. She said she jumps at every sudden noise and has a throbbing headache.

“I can’t stay here. I have four kids. I’m afraid for my life,” Hamer said. “This is not a life that people want to live, especially me. I know it wasn’t meant for me, but you know what could happen.

“This gun violence has to stop, because it could have been anybody,” she added. “I was anybody, and look what happened. I was coming home to surprise my kids. I want to transfer out of this project. I don’t need to be here.”

Police said no arrests have been made.