nora

Interior Designer
Shot: March 5 1999
Chicago Illinois

In my rearview mirror I saw a car follow me in

Nora: “It was winter, a horrible snowstorm. I had just got my hair cut and I was driving home. A couple of guys in my building had rented parking space in the Bays Muffin building, at the Eisenhower Expressway and Morgan Street. It had been abandoned for awhile and these guys were renting parking spaces to residents in my building. It’s not a typical garage. I had a device to raise the door and when I raised it, in my rearview mirror, I saw a car follow me in. I pulled into my space, I didn’t notice that the car pulled up behind me.

“As I turned my car off I was shocked to see that there was a man who opened my car door and put a gun to my head and started screaming at me to give him everything, to give him my jewelry. He looked at my hands and he grabbed at my rings and I took them off for him. He wanted my purse. I had a coat on and he grabbed at my neck and pulled my coat open, I had a necklace on. He was just generally abusive to me. It was very surreal.

It was very grey, very real to me, and he put it to my head

“I felt calm. I saw the gun and I’d certainly never seen a real gun before. It was very grey, very real to me and he put it to my head and I just thought cooperate, do whatever he says. He had my wedding rings and my jewelry and my purse. There was a loud noise, at the time I almost thought it was an accident, I was so surprised by it. Now I realize it was the gun going off. I honestly didn’t know what it was. I thought, what was that? He was still standing there. I know now that when you’re shot you don’t feel pain right away. There’s something about your body going into shock, the pain doesn’t really happen for awhile, for five or ten minutes.

I had given him everything

“When he shot me it was a semi-automatic, it had those dumb-dumb bullets in it, they’re made to maim, to do more damage, and upon impact they explode. If you were shot with a normal bullet it might make a small hole, but in this case it makes a very large hole and it explodes, it damages all the tissue. When he shot me, I put my hand up, it hit me in the hand. Because it was a semi-automatic weapon several bullets flew even though he may have squeezed the trigger only once. One bullet went through my hand, I had a coat on and I had entrance and exit holes in my coat, at my chest, but only my hand was hit. I didn’t really feel pain. At that point my hand fell in my lap and I looked down at it and there were two giant gaping holes in the palm of my hand. As he was walking away he said, ‘You better get that looked at.’ I don’t know why he pulled the trigger, I had given him everything.

I put my hand in my hat

“I went out of the garage, I was very worried he was going to still be there, but he wasn’t. It was snowing very hard, I was bleeding, I took my hat off and I put my hand in it. I got up to the intercom of my building and started ringing bells, I couldn’t really read the names. One of my neighbors walked up to the building and he helped me. The ambulance came; there was a long delay before they took me to Cook County Hospital. Being at County was almost as bad as being shot. Someone on my ward was screaming constantly. A resident suggested I leave County and go to Northwestern, which had a great hand surgeon. We walked out of County without waiting to be discharged. We decided the best option was to amputate my little finger and save my palm. I focused on recovery. I couldn’t dress myself, I couldn’t pursue my career. I had a lot of physical therapy. For awhile I was terrified of everything. I had therapy, I just talked about things. I do worry now; I don’t get myself in places where I could get trapped, but I’m fine. I wanted to be able to use my hand and I can. The shooter was never caught.”