Celina Thomas of Ama heard the words from her son, and her heart started racing.
“’Mom, I’m shot,’” Thomas recalled. “My child is on the phone with me, and I can still hear gunshots in the background.”
Her son Rob had left a little more than 20 minutes earlier to finish the final stages of a music video he was recording. An 18-year-old DHS graduate who took interest in videography in his junior year, he was finding regular work on different projects in the field.
Thankfully, Rob is alive and well today, but his life was in danger on the night of Feb. 26. This particular project saw him arrive to a shoot on South Derbingy Street in New Orleans.
“He said Mama, I’m gonna go shoot this video, I’ll be back in a little bit. I kissed him goodbye, walked outside with him and saw him get into his Uber,” Thomas said. “20 minutes after my child is gone, he tried to call me and I wasn’t near my phone so he tried his sister.
“I hear my daughter say, ‘No, no, where you at?’ and hysterically screaming. And I learn my child’s been shot. He tells me he’s gonna get back to me as fast as he can, and I told him I’m coming to him as soon as I can.”
Rob was in the passenger seat of a Corvette to shoot the video project – quickly, he and the driver found themselves under attack by men who pulled up in another car and began firing into the Corvette. Rob was shot in the chest and was able to escape through the passenger window, which had been shattered by one of the shots.
Thomas said Rob told her he had to ultimately hop a fence to get away, which she believes was the cause of a fractured rib. Soon after, he received much needed medical attention as he was losing blood quickly.
A saving grace, as it turned out, was that the bullet cleanly entered and exited the body as opposed to being lodged inside him.
“He stayed on the phone with me, but he was losing consciousness … it was scary … very, very emotional,” Thomas said.
When the mother arrived to find her son, he was being loaded into an ambulance. It brought back some terrible memories for her in addition to her fear in the moment – Thomas once watched her brother loaded into an ambulance in New Orleans after he had been shot as well.
“He had a tube in him to manage the bleeding, an injured lung, fractured ribs … he was in the operating room for four days. The doctors told us we’d be able to see him after the procedures were done,” Thomas said.
After those four days, Rob was out of the woods in terms of serious risk. Two weeks later, he was able to return home.
“I don’t understand why It happened – he’s 18 and doesn’t really know many people in New Orleans,” Thomas said.
Emotionally, it’s been a challenge though she says her son has been staying strong.
‘He tells me, ‘I’m getting through it,’” she said. “I think he’s trying to be strong for me. He doesn’t need to be. I need to be strong for him.”
Professionally, it’s a hit to Rob as he’ll be unable to take bookings for awhile; furthermore, his video equipment was effectively destroyed by the gunfire. A number of family members and friends of the family have stepped forward to help out – a GoFundMe made by Thomas to help her son replace the equipment.
Thomas said she and Rob are extremely thankful and touched for all of the support.
But a bulk of her gratitude is reserved for a single truth.
“I’m just thankful my baby is still alive,” she said.
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