Mother of shooting victim: ’A centimeter more and my child wouldn’t have been here’

NEW ORLEANS, La. (WVUE) - Cashmere Hamilton says she’s traumatized. She’s one of the 10 people hurt during the mass shooting on Canal Street Bayou Classic Weekend.

"I don't ever want to go out again honestly," Hamilton said. “Like right now when it comes to groups of people, I get anxious because of not knowing what's going to happen."

Hamilton lives in Texas and was in town Thanksgiving weekend visiting family. She says early Sunday morning, she and friends were heading to their car when the enjoyable holiday weekend quickly changed.

"I just remember hearing shots, seeing literally everybody around me running including security officers and policemen," said Hamilton.

She then said she turned her head looking for her cousin, “I felt something,” Hamilton said. “Like I felt like a cool breeze on my head. So, I don't know, something told me to tap my head and I just see blood."

A bullet grazed her head. In a cellphone video shared with FOX 8, captured by Hamilton’s friend, you can hear one officer tell another about Hamilton’s injury.

"She got grazed in the head. We're trying to get EMS. Okay, stay right there," officers can be heard saying in the video.

In the video, you can then hear NOPD officers inspect Hamilton’s graze wound.

Hamilton’s mother, Kimlyn Chester, says she’s thankful because things could have been far worse.

"I didn't know the severity until they told me, 'ma'am you are one lucky young woman,' I said well, what do you mean? He said, a half a centimeter more and my child wouldn't have been here. Wouldn't have been here," Chester said.

The NOPD hasn’t made any arrests but say officers are diligently working to find those responsible.

"I wish they would come forward and you know do the right thing and just come forward,” Chester said. “You know, do the right thing for all of these victims, not just her, for all of them."

Hamilton says it was her first time out downtown during Bayou Classic weekend.

“I don’t think I will ever go out again,” Hamilton said.

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