84-year-old cancer survivor hit by stray bullet in NYC calls it ‘miracle’ she cheated death again
An 84-year-old Brooklyn cancer survivor who was struck by a stray bullet while sitting in her walker told The Post on Tuesday that she’s happy she’s cheated death again.
“It’s a miracle,” Althea Lawson said from her hospital bed.
“I don’t have enough tongue to tell God thanks I’m still here today. Thank God it never hit me in my head!”
Lawson was struck in her left arm by the errant bullet while she sat on the sidewalk near the corner of Brooklyn Avenue and Foster Avenue in East Flatbush around 6:45 p.m. Monday, police said.
She was rushed to Kings County Hospital where she is still recovering.
Lawson said she was about to head home after chatting with friends when she heard the shots.
“By the time they crossed the street to go and get their car and I’m about to go back to my apartment, I heard a heap of bow, bow, bow,” she said.
“I didn’t move. I saw the people running but I didn’t realize I got shot. I did not feel it.”
“I looked down on my hand and I saw the blood running from my hand, my hand was full of blood,” she Lawson said.
“It was dripping on the sidewalk. That’s when I realized something knocked me and I wondered what it was. I said, ‘Oh my God, help me! Help me!’”
Her family said they were grateful she lived to tell her story.
“I’m so thankful,” her daughter, Carine Scott, said Tuesday.
“I’m just praying she’s at peace with herself. I’m happy she survived to tell her story. Many have not. I think she will tell this story, she will see the boys on the corner and she would tell them, ‘Don’t get into trouble.’
“The doctors are trying to take care of the blood clots, so she was having blood thinners,” added Scott, 60.
“My mother is a cancer survivor. She’s in remission. She’s recuperating.”
The octogenarian was not the intended target of the shooter, according to law enforcement sources.
The victim’s red walker was left on the sidewalk next to a blood-splatter stain as nearly 20 shell casings littered the street, photos of the aftermath show.
“It was like so the first volley was four or five shots then the second volley was eight or nine shots. But real fast so it was hard to count,” one first responder who asked not to be identified told The Post.
“It was a lot of blood – It was on her arm, just two shots on her left forearm,” they said.
“It didn’t go through. Me and one of my friends, he took off his shirt and then his undershirt and tied it on her arm and I held it and tightened it. It slowed the bleeding but it didn’t stop.
“She was saying, ‘They shot me! They shot me!'”
The victim’s sister, 88-year-old Enid Lawson, said the two have lived together for about four years.
“I spoke to her last night on the phone. She say she got shot,” the older sibling said.
“She say she looked down and see all the blood spilling down and that’s when she knew. She knew she was shot when she see the blood. Then she say that she can’t speak much longer.”
Enid Lawson described her sister as “the funny one” of the two, and is always in a good mood.
“She’s the happy one. I am not like her. She will go outside and sit there and talk to everyone. I don’t want to walk in this neighborhood,” she said.
“She makes jokes, she’s a fun person. She’s always talking to everyone. I hope I might see her soon.”
Additional reporting by Caitlin McCormack
