Ramona Rogers-Washington has a cast on her broken wrist, and a bullet in her chest, after she was hit by a stray bullet when a shooting erupted outside a CTA bus on Jan. 17, 2013. (Credit: CBS)
Reporting Mike Puccinelli
CHICAGO (CBS) – Ramona Rogers-Washington has a fractured wrist and a bullet in her chest, but nonetheless she said she’s “very blessed” to be alive, after she was shot while riding a CTA bus.
On Friday, Rogers-Washington told CBS 2’s Mike Puccinelli was just trying to get home from work Thursday night when “some guys got off the bus, and they just started shooting.”
It happened while she was riding an eastbound CTA #67 bus near 69th Street and Princeton Avenue at about 8:30 p.m.
Rogers-Washington said two people had been arguing, then started shooting at each other after they got off the bus, but their aim was predictably bad, and pandemonium erupted inside the bus as the bullets flew.
“People hollering and screaming, you know, on the floors … on top of each other,” she said.
The bus was crowded, and she simply had no place to go to protect herself.
“I tried to duck. I mean … I was in the front seat, right behind the bus driver,” she said. “The bus was crowded. There ain’t too many places you can duck.”
When the shooting stopped, the pain started.
“My arm started burning. So, I looked down, and I seen blood. I realized I had been shot. It actually came through the door,” Rogers-Washington said.
The bullet that hit her was still in her chest, after fracturing her right wrist.
“It went straight through my arm, and into my right breast,” she said, explaining doctors didn’t want to remove the bullet, believing it will come out on its own.
Despite it all, the 57-year-old mother of three was just thankful she’s alive.
“I’m blessed. I’m very blessed,” she said.
Still, she said she’s angry at the kinds of young shooters who don’t seem to care who they hurt – or, in many, cases kill – when they start firing their guns at random.
“You guys need to stop. I mean, people are truly getting hurt out here, and it don’t make any sense,” Rogers-Washington said.
No one else was injured in the shooting. The bus driver got the bus out of the area after the shooting, and stopped at the 69th Street Red Line station, less than three blocks away.
Every CTA bus is equipped with up to 10 security cameras. Video from any crime involving a bus is typically handed over to police, but so far detectives have not said whether the shooters were caught on tape.
No arrests had been made as of Friday afternoon.
