‘Nobody Counted on My Making It’: Metro-Atlanta Woman Says Wig Saved Her from Being Hit In the Head with Stray Bullet While Riding Home In Lyft

A Dekalb County woman says she knows that “God is real” after surviving a chilling shooting outside of her home. As she was about to exit a ride-sharing service, gunfire erupted, and the car was hit.

The victim, who is choosing to withhold her name, chose to do an on-camera interview with WAGA-TV FOX5.  

A DeKalb county woman says she was struck with two stray bullets on June 10, 2023. (Photos: YouTube screenshots/Fox 5)

The life-changing event happened on June 10, the first day of the woman’s new job. It also was the aftermath of a heated argument between two men nearby. She heard them while she was pulling up to the East Perimeter Pointe Apartments on Snapfinger Woods in her Lyft and immediately felt uneasy.

“Next thing you know, we hear gunshots. The three [bullets] hit his car, two hit me. The wig I had on stopped one, and one landed in my head. I have a bullet in my head right now,” she said.

Remarkably, she survived the injuries and believes her life being spared is an act of divine intervention.

“I had to pick up my belongings from the homicide department because nobody counting on my making it,” she said in the interview. “God is real. I wouldn’t be here with my kids today if God wasn’t real.”

While she gave God the glory, she also celebrated the Lyft driver, calling him her “hero.” Amid the shooting, he made sure to give her aid, an act that not only saved her life but risked his.

“He came around the car—even though bullets were still flying—he came and got out of his car. One could’ve hit him (but) he held my hand and tried to keep me conscious until the ambulance got there,” she said.

She was immediately taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where doctors were unable to remove the bullet from her head. She was lucky; despite penetrating her cranium, it did not make it into her brain.

Authorities from the Dekalb County Police Department are currently investigating the incident, and no arrests have been made thus far. 

Ironically, this is not the first time that something like this has happened. Fourteen years ago in Kansas City, a woman survived a similar incident where her weave stopped a 40-caliber bullet from entering her skull.

 “I invested a lot of money into this weave, and it saved my life,” that victim said in 2009.

Almost a decade ago, an 18-year-old woman was shot in the head in Chicago, and her weave saved her.

In 2019, a 22-year-old New Yorker’s bra strap stopped a bullet from piercing her spine.

Daniesa Murdaugh told the New York Post she remembers “feeling a sting” after being shot. She also said she felt the blood from the bullet dripping. She did not feel the bullet.

Medics found it after unhooking her bra, and it fell out.

Democracy needs journalism it can trust.

This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.

For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.

Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Back to top