Mother of two survives gunshot to the face in random attack at gas station
A 21-year-old mother is luckily sitting in her home with her two children after she was ambushed and shot in the face outside an Apple Valley gas station last week.
"I got shot in the face with a 45 [caliber gun] and shot in the back," Brenae Smith said. "So it's like, a lot happened to me."
The young mother said the man who shot her in the face aimed to kill her. However, Smith believes the man met his match in her after she was strong enough to survive the ambush.
"I got to fight," she said. "I got to show him 'You didn't do nothing. You just paused my life for a little bit and I already started it again.'"
Last week, Smith pulled over at the Apple Valley gas station to grab her purse after it spilled in her car. When she got out, investigators said Michael Bernard Bullock ambushed her.
"Glass just sprayed at me," Smith said. "I was already hit. There was another bullet hole, so I turned and grabbed the headrest to pull myself in the back but that's when I was shot in the back. So, when I got back there, I was like playing dead. Something in my head was like play dead."
The alleged shooter's photo appeared on the California Sex Offender Registry which listed a previous conviction for a sex crime against a minor.
"They kept letting him out, kept letting him out, until this happened," Smith said.
Bullock was arrested the same day after he called 911 and confessed to shooting her, according to Smith. Prosecutors charged him with attempted murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
"He left me with nothing and I had barely anything," Smith said.
Smith now has a metal plate in her jaw, a bullet-riddled and bloodied-up car and must now take time off work. She hopes the community will rally around her through an online fundraiser while she heals.
"I don't think I would care if I was disfigured," she said. "I can still be a mom to my two babies. I'm just grateful to be alive."
Bullock pleaded not guilty and will return to court on April 29. His bail is set at nearly $2.4 million.
