Duclos is a resident of Chapel Hill, N.C., and is in her second year studying physical therapy at the University of North Carolina. She said recovery from her injuries, including a shattered femur, slowed her education.
And if not for a detour through New York City, she said she may have never been shot.
She explained she had arrived by train at Grand Central Terminal and was walking with a friend across town to Pennsylvania Station to catch another train to a family reunion in New Jersey when she was shot as she crossed Fifth Avenue and 34th Street.
“I started to hear what I thought were gunshots,” she said. “Everything happened really quickly. People were starting to run, screaming and yelling.”
Moments later she felt what seemed like a punch to her left hip.
“All of a sudden I was on the ground,” she said. “I couldn’t move my leg; I knew I was hit by something but it was really hard to connect with the idea it would be a bullet.”
She said she is still working with physical therapists on regaining her mobility, only using a crutch when absolutely necessary.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
(Photo: AP)
