A Texas high school cheerleader has spoken out after being shot when her teammate mistakenly entered the wrong vehicle.
On Friday, 18-year-old Peyton Washington sat down with Good Morning America and addressed the scary incident. During her interview, Washington said that despite what happened on that day and how she’s still trying to move on from the situation.
“He did what he did, and I’m just going to try and get through it, there’s no point in me, really, trying to think about what he did,” Washington said. “I’m just trying to do whatever I can to be normal and do everything a senior in high school would do.”
As previously reported, Washington and her teammates, including Heather Roth, were sitting in a supermarket parking in April when the shooting occurred. Without realizing it, Roth mistakenly entered the wrong car. She then exited the vehicle and went over to the car where her teammates were sitting when Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr. approached them.
According to Roth, she rolled down the window to give Rodriguez an apology but instead, he opened fire on the group of girls. However, Washington didn’t notice that she had been shot at first but saw blood on the seats and felt pain in her stomach.
As a result of the shooting, Rodriguez was arrested and charged with a third-degree felony. Meanwhile, Roth was only grazed by a bullet and Washington suffered three gunshot wounds. In addition, Washington also suffered damage to her stomach, which led to the removal of her spleen and part of her pancreas.
EXCLUSIVE: “My spleen was shattered. My stomach had two holes in it. And my diaphragm had two holes in it … I had 32 staples."
Payton Washington, a Texas cheerleader who was shot after her friend got into the wrong car, speaks out to @michaelstrahan.https://t.co/TbGXQNvbRV pic.twitter.com/FR7R7i5Hkm
— Good Morning America (@GMA) June 2, 2023
