Las Vegas mother recovers after shooting | Shootings

When Martha Carbajal decided to move to Las Vegas two years ago, she was hoping to escape the crime and traffic in her hometown of Long Beach, California. She said she knew she would handle the transition on her own, first by getting a job and then saving enough to move her children later.

Still, the violence would hit them in East Las Vegas. Earlier this month, Carbajal’s plans were disrupted when she was shot in a life-threatening attack that resulted in the loss of her eye, she said.

During her recovery, Carbajal, 45, wore a loose-fitting eye patch that sometimes flaps when she speaks, exposing a stitched, albeit swollen, gunshot wound to her eyelid. Concerned that her new look might scare her two youngest children, a 14-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son, both of whom still live in Long Beach, the mother of four has since paused her regular visits, she said .

The incident was still under investigation. Although the Metropolitan Police Department did not release details of Carbajal’s case or comment on the circumstances surrounding the incident, police confirmed they responded to a shooting in the 500 block of North Lamb Boulevard on Oct. 5 at 7:05 p.m.

In an email, police said a victim in this incident was taken to the hospital with an apparent gunshot wound and the investigation is ongoing.

In an interview, Carbajal described what she believed happened that evening.

On Oct. 5 around 6:30 p.m., she said she had just finished shopping for a new sweater near Charleston and Nellis boulevards. She said she planned to go to the movies and eat sushi with her boyfriend.

On the way back from the store, Carbajal said she suddenly felt the urge to go to the bathroom and turned right onto North Lamb Boulevard, looking for a place to stop.

“For the most part, I always use my GPS,” she told the Review-Journal. “I was trying to familiarize myself with Vegas and that was one of the days where I just decided not to take advantage of it. I thought I would find a way out.”

Carbajal said she turned again and entered a dead-end street where the Vera Johnson Manor B apartment complex is located. When she realized there wouldn’t be a bathroom, she turned around.

Loud bang

Then Carbajal said she heard several loud bangs that sounded like fireworks. Looking for the source of the excitement – and hopefully a “shortcut” out of the apartment complex she’d accidentally driven into – she craned her neck.

What happened after she turned against North Lamb again is still unclear, she said. That’s when she heard what she described as an “explosion.”

Carbajal said she would later find out that the sound was a bullet that first hit the back windshield of her car, then grazed the side of her headrest before striking the right side of her face near her ear. It came out of her eye, she said.

“Suddenly I couldn’t see anything out of my right eye,” Carbajal said. “It felt really painful and was very swollen. I looked down and blood was pouring out of me.”

Carbajal said she got out of her car while still on North Lamb and found a witness who she believed lived at a nearby residence. Still confused and shaken, she said she initially feared the man was the perpetrator and begged him not to kill her. Carbajal said she didn’t have much time to think about who he was before she fell to the ground. However, she remembered him holding her hand and calling 911.

“My instinct as a mother was that I only had seconds or minutes to live,” Carbajal said. “I wanted to say goodbye to my children, so this gentleman helped me name my oldest daughter Jessica.” When Jessica, 23, answered, she couldn’t believe the news, Carbajal said.

Officers arrived at the scene and Carbajal was taken to the hospital where she underwent emergency surgery. She said she woke up hours later to learn she had lost her right eye.

Planning an eye prosthesis

Since the shooting, Jessica has created a GoFundMe page to help pay her mother’s hospital bills. The campaign has raised over $4,000 from nearly 80 donors.

Carbajal is stable and is staying with her boyfriend as she recovers. She said she mostly spent her days sleeping and watching cartoons to distract herself. She added that it’s always a highlight when her youngest daughter sends her funny videos to watch.

“Now my priority is to heal and get a prosthetic eye,” Carbajal said. “I haven’t even done much research because I’m not ready yet. At some point I’ll have to accept it.”

Later, Carbajal said, officers told her that the area where she was shot had become increasingly violent. The block is south of East Bonanza Road.

“Help catch the perpetrator”

According to Metro’s Open Data Portal, officers were called to another illegal shooting near the 500 block of North Lamb Boulevard two days before Carbajal was shot. Over the past 30 days, there have been additional 911 calls in the area for incidents such as a missing person, a car break-in and destruction of property.

Carbajal said no one has been arrested or charged in her shooting, but investigators asked her to be patient in the investigation.

“And if someone knows something, they should make an anonymous call, tip off a detective and help catch the perpetrator,” Carbajal said. “I don’t want people to be in that area without knowing what happened there.”

Contact Akiya Dillon at [email protected].