SEATTLE —
A disabled Navy veteran says he’s grateful to be alive after he was shot in the chest on Seattle’s waterfront.
“More shocked I think than anything else. I just got hit really hard right here in the chest where he hit me real close,” said Harold Powell.
Powell is recovering at home after being released from the hospital on Sunday. His family has set up a GoFundMe to help with his recovery.
On Tuesday, prosecutors shared a newly obtained video that they say shows the suspect, 32-year-old Gregory William Timm, firing a gun at Powell’s chest.
Seattle police say the shooting happened just after 6 p.m. on July 31 in front of the Starbucks at Pier 55.
“I seen the slug. I can see the heat of the slug coming at me and then just, ‘boom!’ Knocked me back,” Powell explained.
Powell told KIRO 7 he thought that was the end for him.
“I just went to ‘I’m gonna die’ so let me call my family. Forget everything else. It’s just all I thought, I wasn’t worried about nothing else,” he recalled.
Powell says the bullet cracked his ribs, but did not strike any vital organs.
“[Doctors] didn’t believe it: after all these x-rays that I can live after being shot like that,” he said.
Powell explained he is a Navy veteran. He says his service ended when he was struck by a drunk driver in 1991.
Since 1995, he says he’s been playing music for donations on Seattle’s waterfront.
“I know people down there, they know me. We’re kind of a family. There is a family. You know, they expect to see me. I see them,” he added.
Powell said it was another ordinary day of work when Timm walked up to him.
Prosecutors say Timm accused Powell of “stolen valor” — falsely claiming to have served in the military.
Footage shows Timm demanding Powell show military identification before ripping a patch off Powell’s wheelchair.
Timm was arrested, but Powell says he hasn’t given him much thought since then.
“I refuse to complain and I’m not gonna let this guy, nothing about this guy, live in my mind rent-free,” he said.
Powell says he’s just happy to be alive. He’s only focused on himself and his family.
“Moving around slow and I’m moving around faster. I’m just blessed, I can still do my thing with my family. I’m blessed.”
If you’d like to help Powell’s journey to recovery, head to his GoFundMe page.
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