TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — It’s been one year since gunfire and chaos erupted in the middle of a crowd in Ybor City.
For Emily Perez, it was the most terrifying night of her life.
“Three seconds after the gunshots rang out, a second round went off and that’s when I felt pressure in my leg,” she said. “Then I realized I got shot a second time, so I was just laying on the floor waiting for someone to help.”
“When I look up, she had already ran and was in the clear, but she had come back for me,” Perez said.
As hundreds of people ran for their lives, Perez’s friend, Kila Ryker, ran into the gunfire, an act of bravery to try to save her friend, that left her with a gunshot wound of her own.
“I felt it automatically,” Ryker said. “I got shot in my femoral artery so I automatically seen the blood coming down my leg.”
Ryker said she had to re-learn how to walk, and will have nerve damage for the rest of her life.
Tampa police said 18 people were shot that day and Elijah Wilson, 14, and Harrison Boonstoppel, 20, were killed.