TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – An Uber driver, shot and left to die, is telling his remarkable story of survival.
More than three months after a man with a gun shot Terence Baxter, his attacker has yet to be caught.
Baxter, 33, told the story of what happened.
He had just dropped off a customer on a trip from Tampa to Largo.
As he waited for another fare, things got ugly.
“These guys out three, four in the morning, I guess they were looking for trouble and they ran into me. It was an attempted robbery,” said Baxter.
Shot in the abdomen, Baxter still wears bandages.
“I got shot in the left side of my stomach, but it ripped through my stomach, hit a vein in my right leg,” he said.
Trying to stay calm, Baxter drove along Ulmerton Road for 10 minutes before crashing into a concrete divider.
“I just had to talk myself. I knew I couldn’t panic. I knew I couldn’t let my adrenaline take me to a place to where I just laid down and died on the side of the road,” said Baxter.
After some time, he saw a deputy.
“I just remember him shining a light in my face and just waking up. I was able to say, ‘I was shot, sir,’” he said.
That deputy is Eric Ford. He managed to get Baxter to Bayfront Health, St. Petersburg.
“I’m just happy to be alive. I got kids and I got a family that love me and a pretty good support system, so I’m just happy that I’m here to be talking to you guys,” said Baxter.
He is grateful to all who helped him.
“This situation has actually made me love because so many people reached out to me, so many people of different races and genders,” said Baxter.
The shooter is still out there, so this is an open case.
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