LARIMER COUNTY, Colo. — One week after being shot in the neck while driving along Interstate 25 in northern Colorado, 20-year-old Cori Romero of Johnstown is finally out of the hospital and back home.
She says kindness conquers crime.
“I feel like you could solve a lot more with kindness,” she said.
She was the innocent victim of a random act of violence last week.
“I feel entirely grateful and thankful to be able to you know walk and talk and stand,” she said just hours after being released from the hospital.
A week after being shot in the neck, Romero isn’t letting the pain shine through.
“As far as physical and emotional, today’s been a pretty good day,” she said.
It was April 22 as Romero was driving home from work when she noticed a car pull up to her driver’s side as she was exiting Harmony Road onto I-25 in Larimer County.
“I thought they had hit me so I thought it was an accident. But my window shattered,” she said.
Romero called 911 without even realizing she had been shot in the neck.
“Paramedics came and took a look at the wound and then they started telling people to leave cause it was considered a crime scene, which didn’t really register to me,” she said.
Rushed to the hospital and into surgery, Romero spent the past week in recovery.
“Here is where the bullet entered and exited and the surgery itself was just to clean it up, make sure that nothing was left in there,” she said as she showed the bandage and stitches that still cover her neck.
While the struggles might be far from over, she said, “I will move on from this. And so I’m just trying not to let it get to me.”
Forgiveness and faith are what are helping her conquer each day.
“I forgive them because we all make mistakes,” Romero said.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Romero in her recovery.
As for the other four incidents where drivers reported their windows being shattered in northern Colorado, police said evidence does not indicate they are related to the shooting of Romero.