By Sarah Horbacewicz, Christa Swanson
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DENVER (KCNC) — A man is hoping to find the person who saved his life and is asking for witnesses to come forward after he was shot in Denver’s Central Business District late Friday night.
Just after midnight on Saturday, the Denver Police Department said it was investigating a shooting in the area of 18th Street and Stout Street. A police report says officers found a man suffering from a gunshot wound to the neck, and he was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Less than 30 minutes later, DPD announced the arrest of 31-year-old Anthony Apodaca in connection with the shooting.
The man, who CBS News Colorado isn’t naming for safety reasons, posted an appeal online for anyone who witnessed the shooting to come forward and contact police. He shared his story with CBS Colorado on Tuesday.
“This started Friday night. I went to the Santa Fe Artwalk, and once I finished that at 11:30, I wanted to come meet some friends on Colfax. So, I got a scooter, and I wanted to take a scenic route through the city, and I went down Stout (Street),” the victim said.
The victim said the suspect, who was later identified as Apodaca, was in a white Chevrolet SUV with several other people and was yelling at random passersby on the sidewalk near 16th Street. The victim says he stopped his scooter at a red light and turned to see what was happening when Apodaca got out of the vehicle with a gun. He went on to say Apodaca allegedly told him he would find him later and kill him before getting back in the vehicle and leaving.
The victim said he looked around for any authorities who may have seen the exchange, but there was no one else around.
When the victim stopped at a red light at the intersection of 18th Street and Stout Street, he says the SUV pulled up next to him. Police records indicate Apodaca allegedly began shouting at him again, before leaning out the window and shooting the victim as the SUV drove away.
“I genuinely didn’t think he was gonna do it. I thought he was just trying to be threatening or scary, and it took me a few seconds to realize what happened. There was this loud pop, and I didn’t even really feel pain, but I felt this shockwave, this vibrating sensation all through my bones,” the victim recalled.
He says the bullet entered through his neck and exited through his shoulder blade.
The victim said that he began coughing up blood and felt it filling his lungs. As someone who works in the medical field, he knew the wound was serious. He explained that he couldn’t use his right arm and couldn’t call 911 because his phone was covered with his own blood. When he tried to get help from a nearby couple, the victim says they left him for dead.
“I see a Tesla pull up to the red light, and there’s a couple in there. I’m like, ‘oh my God, I’m gonna be okay.’ And I walk up to their window, and I’m like, ‘hey, I got shot, please call the police! Please call 911!'” he recalled. “And, I don’t know if they were scared or intimidated or whatever, but they rolled up the window, and they drove away.”
The victim says he remembers thinking he was going to die before he passed out. He recounted waking up to who he believed to be an unhoused man putting pressure on the wound. The victim says that man called 911.
Now out of the hospital, the man says he still has limited function of his arm and expects a long road to recovery.
“(There’s) a lot of pain, obviously. One of the biggest struggles is not being able to be independent, like I was before, with my arm. Things like brushing my teeth or putting up my hair is a real struggle, and I need to find somebody to help me with it, which is stressful,” he shared.
The victim says he was fortunate that the doctors were able to resuscitate him, and he says the bullet missed an artery by a few millimeters. However, he’s not sure whether he’ll ever regain full arm function.
“I don’t even understand why it happened to me, or why he would do that,” he said. “I’ve never seen this guy in my life. He has no reason to have done that to me. It was just completely random.”
Apodaca is facing charges of attempted first-degree murder in connection with the shooting. The Denver District Attorney’s Office said prosecutors asked for a $100,000 cash-only bond, but the judge set a $75,000 cash/property/surety bond, with maximum home confinement, GPS monitoring, and firearms relinquishment.
Local jail records and court records show that Apodoca is now out on bond. The man told CBS Colorado that it “felt like a slap in the face” that Apodaca bonded out.
He said he doesn’t know what should be done to address the issue, but he doesn’t think releasing the suspect so quickly is the right decision.
His coworkers and friends have helped him process what has happened to him, and he’s connected with other shooting victims with similar experiences.
The victim says he hopes someone may have footage or information on the shooting, but mostly he wants to find the man who saved his life.
“I don’t know who he is, and I’d love to go back and thank him,” he said. “I think he saved my life, because if nobody had held pressure on my neck, I was just a couple of minutes away from dying. So that absolutely made a difference, and he helped me call the police.”
He won’t be able to return to work for at least a month while he recovers, and he has set up a crowdfunding page to help cover medical expenses.
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