Ismail Watkins was on his way to see his son when he was shot in the neck.

He was walking down the front porch steps of a house near Lincoln Road in Northeast Washington, D.C., when a guy came up behind him and said, “Give it up.”

Watkins, who thought it was a cousin or friend joking with him, started to turn around but did not get very far before he heard and felt the gunshot. His whole back locked up.

“I felt like I was in the matrix,” Watkins said. “And I got real numb.”

He remembers everything that happened as he was laid on the ground. A friend’s father took off his shirt and pressed it tightly against his skin to stop the blood gushing from Watkin’s neck. His cousin, who was with him, kept telling him “you gon’ be alright.”

Full story can be found here.