MIAMI SHORES, Fla. — A Miami Shores mother, overwhelmed with gratitude, is pushing her painful journey of recovery into change one year after she survived being shot in the neck along Interstate 95 with her young son in the vehicle.
Esha Dawkins spoke to local media outlets on Tuesday, the anniversary of the Nov. 25, 2024 shooting. She was caught in the middle of a shootout near the Golden Glades interchange when a stray bullet entered her SUV.
“I heard the first shot. I didn’t think it was a shot. I thought it was fireworks,” Dawkins said. “The second shot I heard, I felt the glass hit me. I thought I got hit in my head.”
The bullet narrowly missed her 5-year-old son, Sam.
“I just opened the door,” Dawkins said. “I took him out, sat on the side of 95 and told him to hold me: ‘Mama loves you, but I might not make it.’”
X-rays show the bullet remains lodged in her neck today.
“It entered through my windshield, through the driver’s side, into my neck and it’s now sitting behind my throat, sitting in front of the spine,” Dawkins said. “It’s more dangerous to take it out than to leave it there, because I may be paralyzed.”
Dawkins’ attorney, Willard Shepard, joined her at Tuesday’s news conference.
They’re calling for more cameras on I-95, specifically near the Golden Glades, especially after recent road rage shootings.
“Now, if you’re not a felon, you can carry a weapon,” Shepard said. “So, therefore, the volume of people that are carrying weapons legally in the state simply opens the door, mathematically, for this type of thing to happen.”
She now plans to take her pleas for more highway cameras to Tallahassee.
“We don’t know who did it, what was happening, but I’m just thankful that I’m still here,” Dawkins said.
Law enforcement officials are continuing to look for the shooter.
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