A pregnant mother is recovering after being grazed by bullets in a drive-by shooting in Phoenix early Sunday morning.
It happened in the area of 32nd Street and Roosevelt around 1:30 a.m.
Yazmin Sotelo was outside her home loading her four young children into her SUV, when about 15 bullets came flying at them.
“That's when the bullets hit the SUV. I think that's when they struck me. I was grazed three times,” Sotelo said, speaking in Spanish.
She was grazed once in the arm and twice in the leg.
At six months pregnant, she shielded her 1-year-old daughter with her body.
Her father and two other children were not hurt inside the SUV. Her husband ran back inside with the fourth child.
“We got inside fast. We dropped to the floor, and they started firing again,” Sotelo said.
She believes the gunfire was meant for someone else — a family acquaintance who had left the home minutes earlier.
Sotelo says her husband and father had gotten a ride home from the acquaintance when a white Chevy Impala, with four young Hispanic men, stopped behind them. The men inside the car spoke aggressively to the family acquaintance. The car took off, but returned minutes later and opened fire.
"You imagine the worst, that it's the last day of your life,” Sotelo said.
It was five minutes of terror.
One bullet pierced the seat where she was about to place her child and came inches away from the children inside the SUV. Another bullet hit the door where her father was sitting.
"I think I'm going to move. I don't feel safe here,” Sotelo said.
Phoenix police say no suspects have been identified in the case.
