AURORA, Colo. — An Aurora man who was shot while sitting on his couch is speaking out for the first time. He describes getting random knocks at his door and then suddenly a flashing light on his patio.
Ryan Thompson was enjoying a relaxing night at home on Thursday when things took a turn.
"I'm sitting on the couch and I hear like loud banging on the neighbor's door and a bunch of yelling," Thompson said. "I heard knocking on my door, like a soft knocking. And I went to the door to look out the window, and nobody was out there. So they knocked again after I sat down. I got up and I looked out again, nobody's out there."
The 37-year-old said shortly after he saw a flashing light from his patio door that disoriented him.
"I heard two gunshots fired down through my window and hit me," he said. "Another one went through the couch. So three gunshots came inside the window to hit me. One went deep in the couch, the bullet fragments are still in there."
Thompson said he was hit below the jawline and in the arm.
"Both the gunshots, like they deflected and came out that no shrapnel is in my arm whatsoever or my cheek. It went behind my eardrum so like, it didn't blow my eardrum. Luckily, you know, so I'm not going to be deaf," he said. "I never thought in a million years that something like this would happen to me just minding my own business on my own couch."
He said he has no idea why this happened or what the motive could be.
"With them having a flashlight on them before they like shot at me, it automatically makes me think that they were trying to rob me," he said.
After he was shot, he said he mustered the strength to crawl to his phone and call 911.
"I felt flipped outside my body. And I could see myself looking at my body. It was ghostly. I knew that, you know, it wasn't my time to go," he said.
Thompson said this experience has made him a lot stronger.
"I'm feeling like I’m going to make it. I'm really strong, really resilient," he said.
The shooting happened at the apartment in the 10700 block of E. Exposition Avenue. It was reported around 12:07 a.m. Friday.
Aurora police said no arrests have been made.
Investigators are asking anyone with information to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-STOP.
