Woman struck by bullet in shooting saved by stranger
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DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) — One of two women injured early Sunday in a shooting on Court Avenue credits a stranger with saving her life.
Grace Reeves suffered a collapsed lung and two broken vertebrae after a bullet entered her arm and exited from her back.
“The bullet went diagonally right through my right arm, then it broke two ribs and it went through my lungs,” Reeves said. “So, it collapsed and filled up with blood.”
Reeves said she was speaking with a woman she met an hour prior when shots were fired outside The District Bar and Grill.
“I heard a big bang,” she said. “I didn’t really feel anything.”
When Reeves hit the floor, the woman, who asked to remain anonymous, dragged her into the bar to avoid the group of people stampeding out of the building.
“I saw that she had like a hole in her arm, so I grabbed her and I dragged her back inside of District so she wouldn’t get shot again,” said the woman who helped Reeves. “I just thought I had to get her out of there.”
“She was like, ‘Grace, you’re going to be alright. You’re going to be alright,’” Reeves said.
The woman, who asked to stay anonymous, used a sweatshirt to stop Reeves’ arm from bleeding.
The woman walked out with Reeves and the medics all the way to the ambulance.
“I had just met her, and she was really, really sweet,” the woman said. “We instantly connected, and we were just friends. We instantly became friends.”
“It was amazing,” Reeves said. “I mean, she saved me. Like, it’s hard to think how many other people would do that for you.”
Reeves continues to recover at UnityPoint in downtown Des Moines. She plans to meet with the woman who saved her after she is discharged from the hospital.
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