BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — (March 26, 2014) “I told my boyfriend, ‘I got shot. Go to the hospital. Go to the hospital’,” said Michelle Foster, a shooting victim from Battle Creek.
Michelle still bears the scars of gunfire during what police described as a road rage incident.
The former hole in her leg has a dark round scab on it, still evident even after two weeks.
“It hurts and it`s stopping me from doing the simplest things,” said Michelle. “I remember taking my hand and I lifted my leg up and was trying to hold it in because there was so much blood.”
It’s now difficult for the young mother of three to get around as she has to use a metal walker for the time being.
She said the nightmare began as she and her boyfriend, Michael McJunkin, noticed a strange car tailgating on the business loop off of I-94 on March 12, 2014.
Then, at a light near Hamlin and Division, she said the people in that car pulled up beside them.
Michelle said they were, “Flipping us off…. you could tell by lip syncing that they were swearing.”
She said both cars then turned different directions.
Unfortunately, as fate would have it, she said the cars met again at a different light near Calhoun and North Street.
Michelle said her boyfriend got out of the car to try to get a cell phone picture of the license plate of the other car when someone pulled a gun.
“That`s where we met up and they flashed the gun at us,” said Michelle.
She said Michael followed the car to try to get the plate number.
It pulled into Kellogg Community College and both cars stopped.
Before Michael could even get out, she claimed the man got out of the car first and started shooting.
“He`s laying on the ground on his stomach,” she said. “He`s on the ground with the passenger door open unloading on us.”
“Once I got shot, I lifted my leg up and there was just blood gushing all over the place,” said Michelle. “I’m looking at my son. I’m like, “Are you OK? because we`re still getting shot at too.”
“The guy’s out of his car, my son doesn`t know what to do,” said Michelle. “I think like the second or third shot went through my passenger door and hit me and I didn`t know what to do, tell my son to get up or get down or nothing.”
In total, she said around eight shots were fired into her Explorer, some as they drove away, one of those shots breaking out the back window of the family’s vehicle.
Michelle said she was worried her son was going to get hit in the head.
She said they fled to the emergency room nearby for treatment.
Michelle said they had no weapon and never touched the people in the other car, yet she says Micheal is charged with assault for allegedly using his car as a weapon.
She said she is upset that she’s been left struggling with a hole in her leg and in her family life.
She feels the man who shot her should be the one facing charges.
“My boyfriend is in jail for nothing,” she said. “He`s about to lose everything. My son is traumatized over this.”
The prosecutor says that he can’t say much about the case at this time because police are still investigating the shooting.
He said it’s not clear yet whether there will be charges for the man who opened fire.
Calhoun County Prosecutor David Gilbert said the issue will hinge on whether the shooter was exercising lawful self-defense.
