A few hours after winning a championship basketball game for Helen Bernstein High School in Hollywood Friday, 17-year-old Reggie Thimes was shot by a stray bullet while riding a Metro bus through Exposition Park.
Thimes’ mother La Quanda Parker says it was about 10:20p.m when the incident happened.
She recalls:
He heard the shots and everybody ducked and he still got hit and he didn’t know. He said, ‘Mom somebody got shot,’ and then he realized it was him.
I guess he never thought in his wildest dreams he would get shot. He rides that route all the time
Police say several men got into a fight with a woman and opened fire as she drove off. One bullet hit the woman’s car, yet she wasn’t seriously hurt. It was the one that went through the bus window that hit the varsity player in his left side.
Fortunately, the shot wasn’t fatal, and the straight-A student was treated and released from the hospital — with the bullet still lodged in his body.
“I’m just happy that we could smile right now and not be crying ’cause he’s not here. I’m just glad that he’s here and he’s smiling and he’s doing better,” said Tashanna Hester, Thimes’ sister.
Thimes will be missing his team’s play-off game due to his injuries but is just happy to be alive. Authorities have yet to release any suspect information.