Patricia Parker is still recovering in the hospital after being shot in the face, saying it’s a miracle she survived.
“The whole left side was fractured, but the bullet went through my nose,” Parker said. “It went through my nose and now it’s pointing up out of my cheek.”
The 27-year-old was driving with her boyfriend in Hammond, Indiana last Monday afternoon in the 900 block of Eaton when they came across a road block up the street.
“So, I’m backing back and I got my head like this and next thing you know, you just hear 'pow, pow, pow,'” she said.
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Parker told NBC 5 two bullets hit her brand new Jeep. One of the bullets went through her rear passenger side window and struck her in the driver seat. At the time, Parker had no idea she had been shot.
“I tried to hit the gas just to like get away,” she said. “My boyfriend is like 'go, go, go, what’s going on, go, go, go.'”
Seconds later, Parker said she felt a metallic taste in her mouth and blood started gushing from her mouth.
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“My boyfriend noticed I was shot. He jumped out of the car while it was moving even though, you know, the police were few feet away like 'oh my God, we need help, we need help,'” Parker said.
Parker made her way out of her Jeep as her boyfriend tried to get the officers’ attention. Hammond police said officers were responding to a crash just a block from where Parker had been shot.
“While he’s running to the police, I get out,” Parker said. “I can’t walk. I’m crawling down the street. I’m trying to crawl towards them. It’s really all a blur.”
Paramedics rushed her to the hospital and while she was in the ambulance, she said her life flashed before her eyes thinking about her 5-year-old son.
“I just remember looking at the clock that was in the ambulance saying 12:20, 12:21, 12:22 just trying to keep myself alive,” she said. “I’m just thinking about my son I’m just like, 'I have to stay wake. I have to stay awake.'”
Parker said her life now will never be the same.
“I can’t see at all out of my [left] eye. I can’t see at all,” she cried. “I really have to adjust - it’s so hard.”
She believes she may have been targeted because of her Jeep and said just minutes before the shooting, she noticed a group of "suspicious teens" on the block.
“You ruined my life for nothing,” she said. “My son could have been without a mother.”
She’s now preparing for a major surgery to remove the bullet from her face.
“I thought this was never going to happen to me,” she said. “You can’t think like that because it could happen any minute, any time, to anybody.”
Hammond police said they’re investigating the shooting.
Parker said detectives told her the incident was captured on video and that they’re still working to identify the suspects and interview witnesses.
