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Texas cheerleader shot 3 times after friend got into wrong car recalls harrowing attack and hurdles in recovery

“You can literally do anything, if you push and persevere,” the 18-year-old said in an interview with "Good Morning America." Just five weeks after the shooting, she was able to join her friends at high school graduation.
Payton Washington
Payton Washington was shot and critically injured after a friend accidentally got into the wrong car in April.Baylor University via AP

Payton Washington, the Texas cheerleader who was shot and critically injured after a friend accidentally got into the wrong car in April, says she didn’t even see the shooter and tried to keep her friends calm, even as she was bleeding. 

The 18-year-old was struck by three bullets — twice in her right buttock and once in the back that impacted her left abdomen— on April 18 in the parking lot of an H-E-B in Elgin, a carpool point for her and her three cheerleading friends after practice.

Her friend, Heather Roth, accidentally entered a car she thought was hers before noticing a man in the passenger seat and quickly exiting. That man, identified by police as Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., 25, then approached the vehicle the girls were in and opened fire. 

“I was actually texting and eating Twizzlers,” Washington recalled in an interview aired Friday morning on "Good Morning America" when the shooting started. “I didn’t see him honestly.”

“I heard in the background what was happening but I didn’t think it was going to be as big of a deal as it was. She just kept saying like 'I’m sorry, I’m sorry,' that was the last thing really said,” she said.

After hearing the first shot she "turned immediately."

“I didn’t know where it was coming from or anything but it being so loud that my ears were ringing, I knew to turn and do something,” she said. 

The girls sped away from the scene in their car, and Washington realized she was struggling to breathe. 

“We were trying to get away as fast as we could. All the other girls were screaming. I really was just telling myself don’t breathe. It was hard to breathe because of my diaphragm,” she explained.

Despite her injury, her focus was keeping her friends calm.

“I was trying to stay as calm as possible for the other people in the car. I could tell how sad and scared they were. The more calm you are, like your body will stay calm as well," she said. "Of course it was scary but I wasn’t going to act like I was scared.”

That's when she noticed blood on her passenger seat, but she couldn't tell where her wounds were due to her adrenaline rush. When they pulled over, she started to throw up.

“I was throwing up blood and I was like oop that’s not normal. So that’s when I knew something, somewhere was wrong,” she said.

She was airlifted to the ICU in critical condition and she soon learned her spleen was shattered, she had two holes each in her stomach and diaphragm. She said in her treatment doctors had to remove a lobe from her pancreas and she had 32 staples on her body. 

Roth was grazed by a bullet and the two other girls in the car were not physically injured.

Washington, a decorated champion cheerleader, was determined to regain her strength but it was no easy feat. 

“It was hard. Hurting to walk or stand is really weird when a week before you were doing a bunch of flips, running the track and doing long jump," she said to ABC News.

"Can’t get out of bed by yourself, can’t roll off the couch, can’t stand by yourself, going up the stairs I’d get winded. Just stuff you never thought of before,” she continued.

Her father, Kelan Washington previously told NBC News his daughter was strong and had an “undeniable will not to settle for anything.”

“Payton’s accomplished everything she has with only one lung [from] when she was born. She’s as tough as they come,” he said.

Five weeks later, Washington has made great strides in her recovery and was able to wear a cap and gown and join her friends at high school graduation.

Now she's optimistic for her future, determined to return to her passions of cheer and tumbling this summer and set to attend Baylor University in the fall.

Suspect Rodriguez Jr. was charged with deadly conduct, a third-degree felony, Elgin police said at the time. According to online jail records, he was released on May 12 on a $100,000 surety bond.

His attorney, Charlie Baird, said in a statement Friday that Rodriguez was employed at the H.E.B. and was a victim of a robbery in a car in the past. He was startled when one of the young cheerleaders entered into his car and thought he was going to be robbed, Baird said.

His bail was reduced to $100,000 from $500,000 after a hearing “where the judge heard evidence regarding the circumstances of this incident, and learned of Pedro’s ties to the community and his lack of a criminal record,” Baird said. 

“Pedro wishes Ms. Washington a full and speedy recovery.” 

Washington said she isn't focused on the shooter.

“He did what he did and I’m just going to try and get through it. There’s no point in me really thinking about what he did,” Washington said.

Instead, she wants her story to be a message of hope to others.

“You can literally do anything, if you push and persevere,” she said. “Don’t doubt yourself ever. Cause you can do anything as long as you're putting your 120% into it.”