A photographer who live-streamed his own shooting at a Phoenix park was trying to convince his shooters not to use the N-word when he was shot nine times.
The victim, identified on a GoFundMe page as CT, survived, his father reported on Facebook Sept. 17. He also linked to the fundraising page to help pay his son’s medical costs.
“Thank God for my son’s life,” Chea Tardey said in the post. “We need your prayers and support.”
CT was taking landscape photos and live-streaming the experience on Facebook Sept. 12 when three young men approached him asking him to take their photo, according to Fox 10.
He agreed, and when asked if he would charge them, he said, “Nah, I ain’t gonna charge you,” the news station reported.
Then the three started calling him a racial slur, Fox reported.
“My man, I told you you can’t say the n-word. You’re not black,” CT responded.
They reportedly continued using the slur.
“I say what the [expletive] I want,” one of the suspects said, according to Fox.
CT responded, “No, you cannot. Not in front of me.”
Fox reported that as the confrontation escalated, CT can be heard on video saying, “Didn’t I tell you don’t say the n-word? Didn’t I say that?”
It’s unclear what happened next, but at one point in the video, five shots could be heard going off.
CT called 911.
“Hey I just got shot,” he said in the video. “I’m at Encanto Park. Please help me.”
CT later told Fox he started praying after the shooting.
“While I was on the ground I was just praying and asking God not now,” he said. “I was just saying not now, not … not now.”
Police were able to identify the suspects by the photos CT took of them. The men left the camera behind, according to ABC 15.
Ricardo Mendoza-Sanchez and Angel Ortega Romero, both 18, were arrested ,along with an unidentified 17-year-old boy, the news station reported.
Police told ABC 15 two of the suspects had handguns when they were arrested.
They were accused of aggravated assault and street gang activity.
CT, who was left with a bullet in his shoulder, told Fox 10 he wants to see the teens charged with attempted murder.
“It was two people that shot me and they shot me nine times,” he said. “So how can you call that aggravated assault? Like, what was aggravated? Like, they tried to kill me.”
He called his survival a miracle, Fox reported.
“Oh yeah, it’s a complete miracle,” he said. “That’s a blessing, ’cause lot of people have been shot only one time and they didn’t even survive.”
