San Francisco Woman Hit In Unprovoked Paintball Attack; 'I Can't See Anything Right Now'
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Zoe Gisewhite was wrapping up a fun day at Outside Lands Halloween weekend, sitting at a bus stop, waiting to head home when her life took a dramatic turn.
San Francisco police said she was struck several times in a random, drive-by paintball shooting. Now she may be permanently blind in one eye.
Gisewhite told KPIX 5 she was sitting on the bus stop bench at Sunset Boulevard and Noriega Street in the Outer Sunset District waiting for the bus around midnight on October 30. Her partner was standing in front of her while they waited.
"And a car drove by within a couple of minutes and just shot us from the car, never stopped, just continued," she said. "It hit him 6 times in back, and then hit me 3. I got hit in the leg, the hand and the eye. My eye immediately filled up with blood and shut. I couldn't see anything."
Police said the sedan drove off at a high rate of speed.
"It's healing very nicely outside, but inside there's nothing there, I can't see anything right now," added Gisewhite.
She can see faint color in the bottom periphery of the affected eye.
Gisewhite said she has no idea why someone shot at her.
"I want to think it was kids on Halloween, because that's just what happens," she said. "You do stupid things, but this is like irreversible and I just want them to know like this is my life now."
The 29-year-old San Francisco resident of four years is a colorist at Spoke and Weal. She's not sure if she will be able to fully return to work.
"I just want someone to know that this is happening in the neighborhood, and if you've seen it, maybe they've been shooting your house or your car to come forward and kind of help me because I'm blind and I didn't do anything," she said.
Gisewhite said she needs to see a specialist everyday indefinitely, and doctors have to wait for the internal bleeding to stop to evaluate further.
She has a gofundme page set up to help pay for her medical expenses.
