LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Five years after he was shot and paralyzed from the waist down, Terrell Williams revisited the scene.
March 29th, 2017, still replays in the 26-year-old's mind.
"Looking up at the sky, it was bright blue. It was a beautiful day, but I just knew I was about to die," Williams said.
Williams is from the California neighborhood. After work that Wednesday, he decided to visit his brother who lives around the corner from F&H Food Mart on North 41st Street in Shawnee.
On the way, he pulled into the convenience store to make a quick purchase.
"As I stopped at the store, I did something I feel like we've all done in the past, I left my car running," Williams said. "I wasn't thinking too much of it, I knew I'd be in and right back out. I literally was inside the store for less than a minute."
That decision to leave his car running, changed everything.
Williams came back out to an unexpected surprise. A stranger was in his front seat, stealing his car.
Williams said he legally carried a gun and happened to have it with him at the time.
"I had it for self protection but I never thought I'd have to use it. I didn't mess with anybody, I wasn't in any trouble, I never bothered anybody, I stuck to myself," he said. "As soon as I pointed my gun at the thief attempting to steal my car, I felt something pierce my right side."
While being so focused on the man in his car, Williams didn't the other men across the street who were lookouts for the driver.
"I never saw them. As soon as I pulled out my gun, they all started shooting," he said. "As soon as the bullet hit me, it was almost like a twist and turn. My legs just kind of collapsed."
The first bullet pierced his lung and spine.
Williams said he tried to move but couldn't.
"I reached down and I grabbed my thighs and they just felt like bags of water. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get up off the ground, I just kept wiggling back and forth like a fish on dry land," he said.
What he didn't know in that moment, was that the bullet which hit his spine, had paralyzed him from the waist down.
"I'm literally seeing bullets left right left right, concrete chipping up, sparks flying and everything," Williams said.
As shots continued being fired from across the street, the man who stole the car tried leaving the scene, but ended up crashing just a few yards away into a nearby fence.
"When he wrecked, he didn't want the car anymore, he just wanted to kill me. He got out of the car and walked around and he started shooting at me several times," Williams said. "The last bullet he shot, it actually hit me in the right side of my neck and it got stuck in the left side of my chin."
Williams said in that moment he didn't know what to do, so he just stopped moving and hoped the men would leave.
"I waited so long I though, 'Okay, you're about to die. There's one thing you need to do and that was pray,'" he said.
As the men left the scene, Williams started reciting the same prayer over and over: "God please take care of me."
"Looking up at the sky it was bright blue. It was a beautiful day, but I just knew I was about to die," he said. "I thought I was gonna take my last breath right here on that concrete. Telling my brother to tell mommy, daddy, granny, just tell everyone, I love them."
Williams says EMS eventually showed up and took him to the hospital where he underwent multiple surgeries.
"Worst case scenario is of course getting shot and killed but a lot of time, people get shot and they live with lifelong injuries and people don't even know the impact if has on them, their families," Williams said "You go from being completely independent to needing help all the time."
Williams says it was like his whole life restarted once he was shot and his "eyes were opened to reality."
It was during this time, he decided to re-enroll in college. On May 14th, Williams became the first in his family to earn his degree.
"It was the start of a second life, just that new beginning," Williams said. "This is my new beginning. If this hadn't happened, I'd still be just existing and not living with a purpose."
He graduated from UofL with a bachelor in science and business administration with a focus in accounting. This fall, Williams says he'll move to the East Coast to pursue a master's in accounting at NC State.
"I'm a little nervous but at the same time I'm excited too," Williams said. "Just trying to step out of my comfort zone and see what's out there. I've been in Louisville my whole life."
Over the past few years, Williams has become a mentor for others healing from gun violence. He provides peer support at UofL Frazier Rehabilitation Institute and does advocacy work with Whitney Strong.
His road to recovery has been long. Williams says he hopes his story will help shine light on the devastating consequences of gun violence.
"Its just so much going on and it's just senseless gun violence. I got shot because somebody wanted to steal my car. Still thinking about it to this day, it just doesn't make sense," Williams said.
Williams says he has faith he will walk again and is excited for the day when scientific research leads to a new treatment for his spinal injury.
"God's the only reason I'm here today. I feel like he leads my every path," Williams said. "Just to come back and see how far we've come, I don't know, it's just really joyful I guess."
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