Mercedes Thomas-Foster recounts the moments as bullets flew past her and her children in Minneapolis. (FOX 9)
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A north Minneapolis woman dove to the ground to protect her baby Monday night when the family got caught in the middle of shots being fired.
Mercedes Thomas-Foster and her family were just heading to a bus stop when they started hearing gunshots at Lyndale and Broadway avenues.
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Minneapolis mom speaks out against violence after shielding baby from gunfire
A Minneapolis mother is speaking out against gun violence on the north side after a recent incident left her shielding her baby near a bus stop.
Thomas-Foster was with her seven-month-old baby with her husband a bit behind them with their two and three-year-old boys. She was about to run to him but suddenly she says there was divine intervention.
"When God told me to stop and drop that’s what I did because had I went anywhere I would have gotten hit," said Thomas-Foster.
With her baby tucked underneath, she waited for the shots to stop.
"I laid on the ground, I put my body over my seven-month-old daughter and I looked across the parking lot at my husband trying to figure out what to do with our two sons because they’re in a stroller," she recalled.
But finally, she heard silence.
"I took a look around and there were bullet shells surrounding me and my daughter," she said.
Thomas-Foster says the shooter wasn't aiming at anything or anyone. He was shooting just to shoot, spending 20 to 30 rounds. Thomas-Foster says she was traumatized but even more so she was furious.
"We like to scream Black lives matter but who do Black lives matter to?" asked Thomas-Foster. "And when will Black lives matter to Black lives?"
Some might be terrified to speak out to take on the shooters but not Thomas-Foster.
"They already coming after us," she said. "When you shoot a bullet and you have no aim and you’re not aiming at anybody? You already coming after me."
"When you noticed that that was a family of five and we were no threat, they already coming after us," she added. "What am I scared of? These wannabe thugs, these wannabe gangsters these wannabe OGs? Gang bangers? Who am I scared of."
"How about this: be mature enough and have a conversation. No, I’m not scared, want to know why? Because instead of shooting a gun or fighting, I know how to talk. I know how to have a civilized conversation, you understand, even when I’m hurting."