Solved Murders - True Crime Stories - I survived my first shootout at 17 and that night completely changed my entire life #16

Episode Date: July 11, 2025

#horrorstories #reddithorrorstories #ScaryStories #creepypasta #horrortales #shootout #survivalstory #trauma #lifechanging #neardeathexperience  At just 17, a sudden shootout forced a young person to confront mortality head-on. The experience was terrifying and life-changing, sparking a journey of survival, resilience, and self-discovery amid chaos and danger.  horrorstories, reddithorrorstories, scarystories, horrorstory, creepypasta, horrortales, shootout, survival, trauma, neardeathexperience, resilience, fear, violence, lifechangingevent, youthdanger, selfdiscovery, personalgrowth, urbanstories, trueaccount, realexperience

There's so much rugby on Sports Extra from Sky. They've asked me to read the whole lad at the same speed I usually use for the legal bit at the end. Here goes. This winter Sports Extra is jam-packed with rugby. For the first time we've got every Champions Cup match exclusively live, plus action from the URC, the Challenge Cup, and much more. Thus the URC and all the best European rugby all in the same place.

Get more exclusively live tournaments than ever before on Sports Extra. Jampack with rugby. Phew, that is a lot of rugby. Get Sports Extra on Sky for 15 euro a month for 12 months. Search Sports Extra. New Sports Extra customers only. Standard Pressing applies after 12 months for the terms apply. Don't let foot pain or discomfort hold you back.

At foot Solutions, we specialize in high-quality supportive footwear and use the latest scanning technology to custom-make orthotics, designed for your unique feet. If you want to free your feet in joints from pain, improve balance or correct alignment, book a free foot assessment at footsolutions.com. Or pop-in store today. Foot Solutions, the first step towards pain-free feet.

All right, before I get into it, I want to lay a few things out. I'm not here to romanticize what happened, or act like I'm proud of it. I'm also not fishing for sympathy. I know what I did. I lived that life by choice. I wasn't dragged into it kicking and screaming. Sure, my childhood was a mess, but when it came down to it, I chose to walk those streets. I chose those people. I chose that lifestyle. Nobody forced me. Nobody held a gun to my head. That said, I didn't exactly grow up with a fair shot either. I barely had parents.

My mom got stabbed right in front of me when I was five. I watched her get beat on the regular. I used to wet the bed because I was too scared to walk down the hall to the bathroom at night. And then I'd get beat for that too. Eventually, she just disappeared. Later I found out she died. my old man, a junkie who'd steal from his own kid. I'd hustle for lunch money, save up for clothes, and he'd snatch it all to buy dope.

School. No one cared if I went. Teachers didn't care, counselors didn't care. No one showed me anything better. This was before phones had everything, before YouTube could teach you how to change your life. I didn't have role models, I had hustlers and thieves. And guess what? I liked being around them. They gave me something I wasn't getting anywhere else. That sense of belonging, of protection, even if it came with a heavy price. At 15, I started slinging real weight. Not weed, not pills. I'm talking hard stuff. I was in it deep. The cash, the rep, the chaos, it was all I knew. But again, I'm not whining a

about it. I picked that life. It shaped me. And now, after years of dealing with PTSD, regret, therapy, and plenty of quiet nights asking for forgiveness from whatever higher power might be out there, I've come a long way. I'm not the same kid. Not even close. Do I still feel bad about the past? Not really. I've made peace with it. I've forgiven myself. And honest, that's all that matters to me now. I'm not looking for validation, not trying to make people understand me. That used to matter, but now. Not at all. Still, every once in a while, I like to tell these stories. They're a part of me, whether I like it or not. So here goes, the first time I was in a real shootout. I was 17. Me and my crew were thick as thieves, literally. Most of us had

already been in some sort of trouble. Our little suburb outside the city was a dump, guns, drugs, fights, same as the city. We weren't scared of anything. If anything, we wanted to prove we were even crazier than the guys from the inner city. We had this thing to prove, especially when we hung around city blocks that made ours look like Disneyland. It was around July 4th. We hit up a block party deep in the city. The type of scene where the whole Whole Street was shut down, a DJ blaring music from a janky booth, smoke in the air, people high off what they thought was ecstasy, probably laced with God knows what. There had to be a hundred people there.

And if there were a hundred people, then there were at least 30 guns. I was probably the only white dude in the crowd. We were hanging by my friend's car, just kicking it, smoking, laughing. Five of us, plus maybe another five from the neighborhood that we knew. So we weren't totally out of place. Still, we weren't from there, and some people noticed. After a bit, a couple of locals came over and said, Yo, I know y'all ain't from here.

Some people are coming, and it's about to get real messy. You might want a dip. Now, a normal person would have taken that advice and bounced. But us? Nah. We wanted to see what would happen. Prove we weren't soft. Dumb.

Absolutely. But that's who we were. Ten minutes later, it popped off. Gunshots everywhere. The darkness was only broken by the streetlights and the flashes from muzzles. It was chaos. Pure confusion. I had no clue who was shooting at who.

It was like a war zone. I wasn't just going to shoot blindly. But then I saw some flashes coming for maybe 30, coming from maybe 30 yards away and it looked like they were aimed our way. There's so much rugby on Sports Extra from Sky, they've asked me to read the whole lad at the same speed I usually use for the legal bit at the end.

Here goes. This winter sports extra is jam-packed with rugby. For the first time we've got every Champions Cup match exclusively live, plus action from the URC, the Challenge Cup, and much more. Thus the URC and all the best European rugby all in the same place. Get more exclusively live tournaments than ever before on Sports Extra. Jampack with rugby. Phew, that is a lot of rugby.

Get Sports Extra on Sky for 15 euro a month for 12 months. Sports Extra. New Sports Extra customers only. Standard pressing applies after 12 months for the terms apply. Don't let foot pain or discomfort hold you back. At foot Solutions, we specialize in high quality supportive footwear. And use the latest scanning technology to custom-make orthotics designed for your unique feet. If you want to free your feet and joints from pain, improve balance or correct alignment, book a free foot assessment at footsolutions.i or pop-in store today. Foot Solutions The first step towards pain-free feet That was enough for me

I pulled my piece and fired off three rounds Then I hesitated I didn't want to kill someone for no reason But then this car came barreling through the block A guy was hanging out the passenger window Shooting into the crowd like it was a video game My best friend had a pump action shotgun He raised it, fired, and hit it

the door right by the shooter. The guy tumbled back inside, the car rocked a bit, then peeled off. Meanwhile, one of the younger dudes with us had this antique revolver. It looked like something from an old cowboy flick. The kind you got a cock before every shot. He emptied six rounds, reloaded while crouching, and caught a bullet right through his foot. Still finished firing off the next six. When it all died down, most people were okay. Shaken, but breathing. Except for one kid. He was 17, just like us. Had a scholarship to A.D. One school. He wasn't in the life, just happened to live there. Wrong place, wrong time. We walked up to his car. His brains were on the dashboard, and his body was twitching. His cousin was screaming, trying to hold his head together.

That was the first time I watched someone die in front of me. Really die. We didn't wait around. Cops and paramedics took forever to show up anyway. We took the kid with the shot up foot to the hospital. Somewhere along the way, my boy with the shotgun turned to me and said, Let me see your piece. I handed it over.

He pulled out the mag and counted the bullets. You only shot three times. Did it jam? No, I said. I didn't know who I was shooting at. Didn't want to hit the wrong person. He stared at me like I was an alien. F asterisk asterisk that. Next time, you empty that thing. Anybody you don't recognize. They're a target. Got it? I nodded. Got it. You'd think that moment would have changed me. Made me snap out of it. made me question the path I was on. But nah. If anything, I fell deeper. That night was just the beginning.

I chased the madness. The violence. The high that came from surviving things you shouldn't survive. It's messed up, but back then it made me feel alive. Sixteen years have passed since that night. Feels like it happened to someone else. I've got a kid now. I work out, eat clean, try to be a good father.

I'm not that 17-year-old anymore. Most people wouldn't believe my past if they met me today. Hell, sometimes I don't believe it myself. But those memories, they don't fade. They're part of me. Like scars under my skin. I live with them, but they don't control me anymore. I don't glorify them.

I don't regret them either. They were lessons. Costly, painful lessons that shaped me into who I am. This story? Just one of many. And not the wildest, not by a long shot. But it was the first time I realized just how quick everything can fall apart. One moment you're partying on a summer night, the next someone's dying in their car.

And no matter how hard you try, you can't unsee that. So yeah. That was my first shootout. Not something I'm proud of, but it's the truth. Take from it what you will. The end.