September 25, 2008 (Michigan, USA)

I work at the FreshCo on Mercer. I'm a cashier there. I don't usually work the late shift, but I was filling in for my friend Kisha. Kisha wanted to go to a movie with her cousin who was visiting from LA. So I traded shifts with her.

It was Thursday evening, and we close at 10 pm. James, the manager, locked the doors and I cashed out my till. It was 7 cents over. I went through my closing duties, sweeping and wiping down my counter. Walked to the back of the store to the break room, had a talk with Corey, he is one of the stock boys. You know, they fill the shelves.

We didn't talk about anything important, just work stuff.  I got my things out of my locker. My purse, my house keys and my cell. Then I said goodnight to James and Corey and went out the back door of the shop.

See, I don't have a car, so I was walking home. I don't live far from work, just around the corner on Elsmere Ave. I grew up here; so I ain't afraid of folks around here. But everyone knows you don't go into Gignac Park at night, and being a girl on my own; I thought I'd take the long way home.

So I walked up Mercer St and took a right onto Hanna St. When I got to Howard Street, instead of taking a left, I went right, towards Tecumseh. I planned on taking a short cut there by the Dr.'s offices. It's mostly deserted there at night, so I figured it was okay.

When I turned right into the alley, I saw some guys hanging around, at the time I didn't think much of it. So I just kept walking. There were three of them. I believe they were in their early 20's. I looked at one of them and smiled. He was about my height, 5ft5 I suppose. Real dark skinned, and at first, I thought he was kinda handsome. He had a sweet smile and pretty teeth. 

It was dark out, and there wasn't much light, so I couldn't tell what color is clothes were. But it looked like a black, or dark blue jacket with a t-shirt underneath. He had on real nice kicks. All white and new looking. And real pretty hair, all clean cut with a zig zag pattern shaved into the side.

It's hard to say now, but at the time, I was distracted by looking at him. That's why I didn't notice that the other guys so well. I think one had on a white t-shirt and a blue jacket; he was kinda tall I remember. Maybe 5ft8 or so, and he had long dark dreadlocks.

I passed them now, so they were behind me. They started to follow me. I got to the corner of the Dr's offices and one of them, I think it was the tall one with the dreadlocks hit me with a stick or something.

 I turned around to yell at him, and all three of them jumped at me. That's when I saw that the third guy had a gun in his hands.

The third man wore a black hoodie and black pants and had real crooked teeth. He was shorter than me, maybe 5ft4. His hair was short and curly. He was pointing that gun at me saying "shut up." I must have been screaming at them.

The pretty boy and the tall boy were pulling me towards the back of the Drug Mart, by Hoffman Post Office. There was a car parked there in the shadows. I got real scared and started kicking and screaming. I was afraid they was gonna put me in that car and kill me.

I didn't get a good look at the car before they knocked me out, but I did see it was a kind of four-door sedan. It looked gray and had shiny silver rims. I was fighting so much, but there were 3 of them and 1 of me. I bit the pretty boy on his hand. I think I drew blood, but it might have been my own.  That's when the third guy hit me in the face with the gun.

I don't remember anything else after that.

Sincerely,

Shaniqua J Walker