Payton Washington.Photo:Good Morning America/Twitter
Good Morning America/Twitter
One of theTexas cheerleaders who was shotafter accidentally getting into the wrong car has spoken out about the ordeal for the first time.
Payton Washington, 18, sat down withGood Morning Americaco-anchor Michael Strahan this week and said she was “throwing up blood” following the shooting, which occurred after her teammateHeather Roth, 21, misidentified a car in a Texas parking lot on April 18.
Washington was left with a shattered spleen and “two holes” in her stomach, and was initially in critical condition after the shooting, she said on GMA while recalling the harrowing event.
“And my diaphragm had two holes in it," she added. “And then they had to remove a lobe from my pancreas. I had 32 staples.”
Washington had returned from cheer practice just after midnight with Roth and two other cheerleaders on the night of the incident.
According to authorities, the shooting happened after Roth had gotten out of their teammate’s car and tried to enter a vehicle she mistook for her own at an H-E-B supermarket in Elgin, Texas, only to realize a man in the passenger seat.
Washington was critically injured in the Texas shooting.GoFundMe
After returning to her friend’s car, the man — identified as Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr. — then got out and approached Roth and Washington inside and allegedly shot at them.
“I was actually texting and [eating] Twizzlers,” Washington said onGMA, describing the moments before the shooting.
“I didn’t know where [the shooting] was coming from or anything, but it being so loud that my ears were ringing,” Washington continued.
She realized “something was wrong” soon after the cheerleaders drove off mid-shooting, as she “saw blood on [her] seat,” she explained onGMA. “Whenever we pulled over and opened the door, that’s when I was throwing up blood,”
“We were trying to get away,” she continued. “I really was just telling myself to breathe. It was hard to breathe because of my diaphragm.”
The cheerleader underwent life-saving procedures, and added that she also went through a lot of pain post surgery.
“Hurting to walk or stand is really weird when, a week before, you were doing a bunch of flips, running the track, and doing long jump, and all this stuff,” Washington said.
Rodriguez, 25, is charged with felony deadly conduct following the shooting. It is unclear if he’s retained an attorney to speak on his behalf or entered a plea.
“[Rodriguez] did what he did, and I’m just gonna try and get through it. There’s no point in me really thinking about what he did,” the cheerleader said on GMA.
source: people.com
