‘She doesn’t deserve this’: Downtown shooting victim recovering after gunshot breaks leg
By Daeshen Smith
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MOBILE, Alabama (WALA) — Brandon Hallman and his friends were some of the thousands of people celebrating New Year’s Eve in downtown Mobile. Hallman says they were walking down dauphin street for the Third Eye Blind concert when they started hearing gunshots.
“Whenever they heard it, they thought it was one of those firework poppers you throw on the ground but for me, I immediately knew and told them to run,” said Brandon Hallman.
Hallman says he and his friends ran down Dauphin Street to take cover as the shots continued. Hallman says he caught a quick glimpse of what happened.
“It sounded like he just unloaded the entire clip,” said Hallman. “He didn’t seem like he knew how to control the gun very well. Just kind of pulled it out of his pocket unloaded the clip and ran.”
The group finally took cover near Joachim Street Hallman says a couple of them were grazed by bullet fragments. Then they realized their friend Ruthba Yasmin had been shot in the leg.
“She had a lot of blood loss,” added Hallman. “I immediately used a jacket that we had that was kind of a thinner cloth to make a tourniquet to stop the bleeding as well as possible before running back down Dauphin towards the gunfire to get a police officer.”
Ruthba was rushed to a local hospital where doctors found the bullet had gone straight through and broken her leg. Hallman says they found part of the bullet in her shoe after she was discharged from the hospital. but despite the injuries, she’s still in good spirits.
“I wouldn’t be able to process it as well as she has. It’s been inspiring,” said Hallman.
Ruthba’s entire family is still in her country of Bangladesh while she works to get her graduate degree in electrical engineering at South Alabama. So, her friends are doing everything they can to help her recover at home.
“She definitely didn’t deserve this. I don’t think anyone deserves this, but she definitely doesn’t, and I think she needs as much help as possible,” said Hallman.
Ruthba can move around by using crutches, but she’ll still need to see some specialists to find out exactly how much damage was done to her leg. If you’d like to help, there is a Gofundme to go towards medical expenses.
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