jonathan

Copy Editor
Shot: June 25 2002
New Orleans Louisiana

I was running

Jonathan: "It was seven o'clock in the morning. I was training for the marathon. This Tuesday I did the same thing I always do. I left my dog, Watson, at home, took my keys and ran. Running is always meditative. I was thinking about how a friend had just moved into a house I was passing. I was running in the middle of the street. I turned the corner onto Burgundy Street, I ran a few steps and two guys on a bicycle, one sitting on the handle bars, one riding the bike, were coming at me.

"The guy on the handle bars hops off, he's right in my face looking at me and says, `Give me your money.' I told him, `I don't have anything, I'm jogging.' I was wearing a silver bracelet my girlfriend had given me. I had my hand down at my side because I didn't want to give it to him. The guy said, `Okay, well.' We kind of walked around each other and I saw the gun in his hand, it was a 38. He said, `Okay, just keep running.' And I did. Then I heard him say, `Die Bitch!' I hit the ground. The first bullet broke my femur in my hip. A neighbor told me the shooter came closer and shot me a bunch more times. I remember I cursed at him and said, `Why are you still shooting?!' I used to play laser tag and one shot and you're gone. I guess he emptied his gun. One bullet went right through me, one went through my colon and did a lot of damage, one fractured my hip. I still have two bullets; one by my hip, the other by my kidney.

I'd been a workaholic all my life

"I remember being in the street. I didn't know how badly I was hurt. Then I realized I was bleeding very badly. I thought I was going to die. I said, `What a waste!' I looked up at the sky. I'd been a workaholic my whole life saving up for nothing if I died. I remember the neighbor coming out on his porch, he plugged my femoral artery. That's why I would have died; I would have bled out, I almost did. He said, `I hope you wore your clean underwear today, sir.' I remember telling him, `No, I don't think I did!' Then I remember the firemen came, and they asked me, `Do you have any AIDS?' I said, `No, I'm extremely healthy.' They told me later I was saying, `I'm fine, just leave me alone.' I woke up two weeks later in the hospital. My whole family had come from all parts of the world.

People have to take care of me

"It's been a real struggle. I've gone through ten different surgeries. I've got eight giant scars, both sides of my legs are sliced up completely because my body swelled up so big they had to relieve the pressure. I can't pick things up because I can't use my thumb. There've been psychological ramifications with my girlfriend and my family. People have to take care of me. I've always been so autonomous and independent that it made huge problems. I lost twenty or thirty pounds. I still use a cane, I can't walk properly. I'm hoping that I will eventually."