LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) — Friday morning 19-year-old Kyo’drick Sam stepped outside as a free man for the first time since he was involved in a shooting in downtown Lafayette early Sunday morning.
That morning, Sam was shot three times after throwing himself on top of a gunman after a night out with friends.
“He pulled out the gun on my homeboy, so I’m like, ‘Oh I gotta be a hero.’ He didn’t know who I was, so I just came from around, and I tackled him and stopped him from shooting my homeboy,” Sam said.
In the commotion, Sam says he was shot three times, and the gunman accidentally shot himself twice. Three bystanders were also shot and injured.
The next morning while Sam was recovering in the hospital, he was charged with attempted second-degree murder.
“My son was crying. He was saying, ‘Mama, I didn’t do anything. Mama, please please please, mama. Tell these people I didn’t do anything wrong, mama. I’ve been shot three times mama, please, and they’re hurting me,’ and it hurt me seeing my child have to go through that,” Kiane Dixon, the victim’s mother, said.
Sam told detectives the gunman accidentally shot himself, but still, he was taken from his hospital bed to jail.
“I was thinking I almost lost my life to the streets, you know. Now I’m losing my life to the court system. They didn’t believe me. I felt like my word didn’t mean anything. My word didn’t mean nothing towards them,” Sam told News 10.
Sam spent five days in jail until investigators found proof he was telling the truth. Surveillance footage from nearby showed what really happened that night.
That tape turned Sam from a suspect into a victim and a free man.
Sam says although he’s no longer facing a murder charge, he’s still fighting to get his health back after spending time in behind bars.
“They treated me like I just didn’t get shot, like I just didn’t get out of the hospital. It was hot up in there, and they barely fed me. They treated me like I was a dog in there,” he said.
His mother says she’s angry with the way the investigation was handled and how her son was treated, but she’s happy to have her son back.
“I thank God that he made it. I’m grateful to God that he made it,” she said.
Sam’s doctors say his liver is lacerated and a bullet hit his diaphragm, but he is recovering.
The four others shot during the altercation are also stable condition. A GoFundMe has been established to help with Sam’s medical treatment. You can find it here.