EUCLID, Ohio — Video chatting with News 5 from his hospital room, college junior Marshon Wilson said he is simply grateful to still be in the land of the living.
“If I wasn’t brought to the operating room in time I could’ve passed away,” said Wilson. “I’m extremely grateful to be here and I feel like my angels above were looking over me."
Wilson is a stocker at a Dollar Tree location in Euclid and nearly died on Sunday.
He explained that a man who was suspected of trying to steal from the store earlier came back with a group of men and jumped one of his coworkers outside.
Wilson said he came outside to help his coworker and ended up getting shot.
“I was shot three times, I was shot in my hand, leg, and stomach,” said Wilson. “It went through the middle of my stomach and exited out the side of my stomach."
Not even 24 hours after the shooting, Dr. Katie Krammer received a frantic email from Wilson urging her to Facetime him immediately.
Krammer is an instructor at Lake Erie College and Wilson has three classes with her.
“One of the first things he said was that he didn’t think he going to be in class on Wednesday,” said Krammer. “I told him, ‘Marshon that’s the last thing you need to be worried about right now. Don’t worry about it at all, we’ll take care of it.’”
Krammer took it a step further and started a GoFundMe for Wilson, raising more than $5000 in just two days.
Lake Erie also took it upon themselves to support Wilson, selling snacks and writing get-well cards.
Krammer said all of the proceeds that students raised will go right back to Wilson.
“He’s so conscientious and committed to getting his special education degree, he only has three semesters left,” said Krammer. “We’re all trying to do whatever we can to get him through this and get him his degree."
On top of studying to become a special education teacher and working at Dollar Tree, Wilson said he takes care of his little brother.
Wilson explained that he’s not letting anything, even three bullets veer him away from his goals.
“I’m just really in school trying to finish so I can be more of a role model for my little brother Bryson,” said Wilson. “I also lost my mom in 2019 and she’s a really big reason why I was trying to finish school, it was for her."
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
