A suburban Austin high school cheerleader who was of two young women shot in a grocery store parking lot while returning home from a team practice near Houston recently graduated and has opened up about her harrowing ordeal.
Per a report from Austin ABC affiliate KVUE, newly minted Round Rock Stony Brook High School alumna and Baylor University (BU) bound Payton Washington said during an appearance on “Good Morning America” (GMA) she acted on instinct when the April 18 incident unfolded in front of the H-E-B in Elgin.
"I turned immediately with my blanket," Washington, who’s a member of the Woodlands Elite Cheer squad along with the three other girls who were with her that fateful night, said on GMA. "I didn't know where it was coming from or anything, but it being so loud that my ears were ringing, I knew to turn and do something."
Washington’s teammate, Heather Roth, attempted to get in a car she thought was hers when she saw an unfamiliar man in the passenger seat, causing her to panic and run back to her teammate’s vehicle.
Roth attempted to apologize to the man – identified by law enforcement as Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr. – to no avail as he drew a firearm and began firing.
According to Austin Journal, Roth was grazed by a bullet and Washington sustained hits to her leg and back.
Elgin police apprehended Rodriguez, who was charged with deadly conduct.
Washington, Roth and their two teammates usually met at the H-E-B to commute together to The Woodlands three times a week.
NBC News reported that Washington additionally told GMA host Michael Strahan she was texting and eating candy at the time the incident that would change her young life unfolded.
“I didn’t see him honestly,” she recalled referring to the alleged gunman.
Washington further explained that she went to the hospital, where she underwent a procedure with her pancreas and was applied 32 staples to her body, NBC News reported.
A GoFundMe page that was created to help cover medical costs accumulated over $50,000 as of April 19.
Per KVUE, Washington, who’s a pledge for Baylor’s acrobatics and tumbling team, admitted that the injuries she suffered made simple things like walking and standing very difficult.
More than a month later, the station reported, she earned her diploma from Stony Brook to which she told GMA’s viewing audience, “You can literally do anything if you push and you persevere.”