Woman shot during Dallas ambush attack recalls experience

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A woman who was shot during last Thursday’s ambush attack on police is speaking out about her experience and how she saw an officer get shot dead.

Shanequa Williams was in downtown Dallas with three teenage girls when the shooting started. She was trying get to her girls out of harm's way when she was shot.

“We were just talking or whatever and I had just sent my girls to McDonalds to get something to drink,” she recalled.

Williams was near Main and Lamar streets across from El Centro College.

“We kind of heard like this noise. Kind of like somebody had hit a curb or something. We instantly started looking,” Williams said. “All you could see is a guy walking down the street, and it just started. The gunfire just started out of nowhere. Just everywhere.”

Moments later, Williams said she saw two people get out of a car. She said she doesn't know who they were, but officials have said that SWAT and other special units in plain clothes were quick to respond.

“When the gunfire started ranging out of everywhere, everybody started really ducking for cover, just running. People started scattering everywhere. I ended up in the garage,” said Williams. “Once we got in the garage, someone started shooting inside the garage.”

Williams said police then went over to the garage and got everybody out of there. But Williams was still trying to get to her daughters and goddaughter at the McDonalds as the gunfire continued.

“I tried to go through McDonald’s side door but they had it blocked with trash cans and stuff like that,” she recalled. “So when I went around to the front, that’s when I got grazed.”

A bullet hit Williams in her left foot, tearing through her jeans.

Once she was finally reunited with her girls, they made their way to the Omni Hotel, their safe place.

“I ran my girls in the hotel and got them there,” Williams recalled. “And we end up going to the twenty-third floor. We just jumped in the elevator. We didn’t know what to do.”

Williams’ brother made his way downtown and took her to Baylor Scott and White Hospital in Sunnyvale.

“It was kind of heartbreaking at the same time, because I seen an officer go down,” she said. “And that’s what really got me.”

Lorne Ahrens, who was buried on Wednesday, was the officer Williams saw get shot.

“I feel like we, as black people, have it hard. I do. I’ve seen different things myself. I’ve been harassed by the police,” she said. “But I’m not gonna go out here in the streets and get revenge by killing cops.”

Police Chief David Brown originally said they thought there was more than one shooter. Police are now confident Micah Johnson was the only shooter and that many SWAT and undercover officers were also engaged in gunfire with Johnson.