The daughter of comedian and radio host Rickey Smiley said she’s “happy to be alive” and is feeling okay after being shot multiple times over the weekend in Houston.
Aaryn Smiley called into her father’s show on Thursday morning and said she and her boyfriend were going to get food at Whataburger to celebrate her 19th birthday when she was shot.
“I’m okay. I’m happy to be alive. I’m just happy to be here,” Smiley said on the “Rickey Smiley Morning Show.”
Houston police said the incident happened on Sunday around 8:45 p.m. on South Freeway when shots were fired from an unknown vehicle at a car stopped at a traffic light. Three men in the car were injured, along with Smiley who was in a separate, unrelated car. Rickey Smiley says his daughter was shot three times.
The men in the other car suffered non-life threatening injuries. So far, no arrests have been made.
Smiley said she and her boyfriend were stopped at a red light waiting to make a left turn when another vehicle pulled up in the right lane.
“There was a car already in the middle and a car comes up in the right lane and they just started shooting,” she said. “They were shooting at the car in the middle.”
She said she initially thought fireworks were going off and thought one of them had gone through the car and burned her. It wasn’t until her boyfriend told her she had been shot, that Smiley realized what happened.
“I didn’t know I had been shot in my left leg only because it had went straight through and the bullet had only stayed in my right leg. I was trying to put as much pressure as I could,” she said.
Smiley and her father have been sharing updates on her recovery on Instagram. In a post Wednesday, she said the shooting has taken a toll on her mental health.
“The doctors say i have PTSD. Loud noises or popping sounds makes me cry,” she wrote. “I get panic attacks way easier. The mental aspect of all this is really scary. Hopefully my mental increases with my physical!!!!”
On Thursday, she shared a video of herself using a walker as she took a few steps down the hospital hallway.
