ATLANTA -- A woman who survived a gunman’s shooting rampage – she was shot in the neck – is asking for the gunman to surrender so she can face him and ask him why.
The gunman opened fire in a northwest Atlanta neighborhood just over a month ago and is still on the run.
Tameka Jenkins told 11Alive’s Jon Shirek that she’s in great pain but thankful to God.
Police had said, at first, that she was shot in the face. Actually shot in the neck, she does not know how she survived.
“There is a bullet wound here, and exit wound here,” she said, pointing to her injuries.
Tameka said she remembers little from that morning of July 28 - it’s blocked from her memory. She was at this store on Joseph E. Boone - a neighborhood gathering place.
Also in the store was the man now suspected of shooting Tameka a few minutes later. Tavoris Ferrell, someone Tameka has known since childhood, she said.
Just an acquaintance.
Why did he get into her car as she drove away? She doesn’t remember him shooting her or understand why he would have. She crashed nearby.
Police said Ferrell ran and left Tameka for dead. He ran up to a nearby intersection and opened fire at random passing cars. He even wounded an Uber driver before running away again.
“I don’t know, I want to understand what could make a person react so violently, what would make you stay in submission to such evil?” she said.
Tameka spent most of August in the hospital. It’s been a rough recovery.
“Oh wow, you don’t even know the half of it,” she said sighing. “Whoa.”
The pain in her jaw is so intense she has trouble eating, speaking and sleeping. The pain in her heart is almost unbearable; she’s mad at herself because she can’t remember the traumatic details in order to help police investigators.
But she thanks God that she is alive.
“So, that’s all that really matters to me. I don’t wish anything bad on anybody who did it to me. I just want to hope that they are caught and that maybe they have some type of rehabilitation,” Tameka said. “I really want to know what he thinks about what he did to me. Because I still would not wish that upon him.”
Atlanta police are again asking for anyone who knows where Ferrell is to call in anonymous tips to Crime Stoppers Atlanta. They could qualify for a reward of up to $2,000 - and give Tameka a bit of peace.
PHOTOS: Tavoris Ferrell
