'I just felt this explosion in my face': Seattle man talks of being shot in his car at stoplight
Victim of Seattle stoplight shooting talks of fateful day
Victim of Seattle stoplight shooting talks of fateful day
SEATTLE -- Police are still trying to figure out who shot a man in south Seattle last week. He was sitting in his car at a red light, when he was struck by two bullets.
“I remember everything,” shooting victim Bao Vinh Pham said Monday.
He said that last Monday had been like any other day. He finished work, got in his car and started driving home, when he hit a red light at MLK Jr. Way and South Cloverdale.
“I think I was there for like 10 seconds, and I just felt this explosion in my face. The first couple seconds I didn’t know what it was, I thought it was like a truck or something hit me. Then I realized I had been shot, because I felt blood oozing out of my face.”
Police say a shooter hit Bao twice. One bullet struck him in the eye, the other in the hip. Officers are investigating, but still don’t know where the shots came from.
“We’re really relying on the community’s help on this case because we don’t have a good suspect description right now,” says Seattle police detective Patrick Michaud.
Police do not believe the shooting is gang-related, but can’t say for sure whether Bao was the intended target or mistaken for somebody else.
“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” says Bao. “I don’t think I’m (that) bad a person to make someone hate me that much.”
He’s thankful the bullets didn’t kill him, or blind him completely. Now he’s just focusing on his family, and his recovery.
“I don’t want it to happen again. But it terms of catching the people just for my revenge, that’s not my priority. I’m just looking forward to being able see again, getting my health back and going home and moving on with my life.”
When Bao was in the Army, he was a medic. His family says his training must have kicked in, because he grabbed a blanket in the car and used it to control his bleeding seconds after the shooting.
If you have information that might help the investigation, you are urged to call the Seattle Police Department.