A San Francisco man says he’s lucky to be alive after someone yelled a homophobic slur at him and then shot him.
The incident was reported just after 1 a.m. on the corner of Harrison and 10th St., less than a mile from Emory Etheridge's home.
“He did say what he said as he shot me, so I think that makes it automatically a hate crime,” Etheridge said.
The man had just spent a night out with friends and was walking through the SoMa neighborhood when he stopped to call Uber to take him the rest of the way home.
He said he never saw the shooter clearly because the man was standing near some dark and dimly-lit car wash bays.
“I heard f*****, and I was like ‘what?’ I looked over, and the moment he said 'f****,' he shot me,” Etheridge said.
He was shot in the hip and heard the shooter get in a car and speed off, but he said he never got a good look at the vehicle either, because he was in shock and losing blood fast.
Local
Etheridge called his husband from the ambulance to San Francisco General where he spent the next day and a half.
“They did a great job,” said Etheridge. “They have a great staff there, so I’m very lucky.”
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
Now bandaged up and on crutches, he’s thankful he’s alive and knows it could have been a lot worse than a gunshot and six weeks of rehab.
“I’m not going to complain about my situation after seeing what I’ve seen this week,” he said, referring to the deadly school shooting in Texas. “I’m just lucky to be alive.”
Etheridge’s husband said the San Francisco Police Department’s special investigations division is handling the case and treating this as a hate crime.
