SEATTLE — The Bothell man who was shot during a protest on Seattle’s Capitol Hill says he would do it all over again.
Dan Gregory was caught in the midst of the chaos when a car careened into the crowd in what is now being called the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.
“There was one goal, and one goal only to stop that car,” said Gregory, adding that he knew the car was going to hit the crowd of protesters.
Gregory, 27, held his mother’s hand, reliving a moment he will almost certainly never forget.
“I didn’t stop,” he said, his voice breaking. “I had to keep going to get that guy. Because I didn’t want nobody, I didn’t want anybody to hurt those people.”
Gregory was among a thousand protesters outside the East Precinct on Capitol Hill when he saw the vehicle headed for them Sunday night.
Prosecutors say the driver, 31-year-old Nikolas Fernandez, pulled a weapon and shot Gregory in the shoulder.
“I heard something,” said Gregory. “I didn’t know what it was. Everything happened so quick.”
Gregory grew up in a tight-knit family outside Baltimore, Maryland. His father was a Baltimore police officer for 20 years; his mother, a 911 dispatcher for more than 30 years.
They believe the shooter’s gun jammed, sparing Gregory worse injuries.
“I’ll tell you what,” said Della Gregory, “that was nobody but God in my eyes. I don’t know what’s better, grace or mercy. But I’ll take both.”
Fernandez told investigators he was lost and thought he was being carjacked. He has been charged with first-degree assault.
Gregory’s family believes the charge should be stiffer.
“If he hadn’t turned around,” said Karen Koehler, their lawyer, “we would be attending a funeral now. And not having a conference now underneath my deck.”
The family’s deep faith is getting them through the incident.
“Like I said, I won,” said Gregory. “The devil lost. He clearly lost.”
Gregory says he has one message for his fellow millennials: come November, vote.
A GoFundMe page organized by Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County was set up as a way to help Gregory pay for his medical bills. It raised more than $100,000 within hours and as of Friday, more than $235,000.
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