More than two weeks after two masked men shot her while she was standing in her Orinda driveway, Carol Brown is talking about the terrifying incident for the first time.
"I was literally an inch away from having that bullet penetrate my lungs," said Brown, who serves as vice president for the Orinda Board of Education. "I would have been dead."
The bullets hit Brown, 70, in her hip and arm. One of those bullets is still lodged in her body.
"And I can't take a shower for another week or so," she said.
In the Sept. 26 robbery, police said the suspects dressed in Halloween masks shot Brown twice and pistol-whipped her husband.
"I thought they were here to see our son and playing a prank," Brown said.
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Brown said if she had seen the gun, she would have given the men her purse.
"But I said no, and he shot me," she said.
Brown's husband, Tom Spaulding, said "nobody expects this to happen in their life."
The couple's son, Micah, quickly called police as the suspects took off.
The Contra Costa District Attorney's Office on Tuesday charged six men in connection with a series of home invasions and a string of armed robberies.
"There are charges of not only robbery, burglary, carjacking and conspiracy," Contra Costa County District Attorney Satish Jallepalli said.
The suspects have been identified as Tarell Brown, 19; Ronald James Fluker III, 19; Bobby Ray Williams, 20; Marrico Teyon Williams, 19; Tommie Ray Woods, 19; and Torion Demonte Young, 18.
Sources tell NBC Bay Area it is likely the men will also be linked to the violent attack in Brown's driveway.
But the educator is not focused on that. Brown wants to use the incident to call attention to stopping gun violence in every neighborhood.
"I don't want any kids to be afraid of going trick or treating," she said.
Brown has chosen 1000 Mothers and Americans for Responsible Solutions as organizations she wants the public to donate to or get involved with.
