‘I’m happy I’m alive’: Man caught up in shootout on highway dodges bullets but ends upside down in crash
By Brian Hamrick
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CINCINNATI (WLWT) — A shootout between moving cars on I-75 leaves two people injured and a driver who just happened to be in the middle of it all, thankful to be alive.
“I saw that fire from the guns, like you can see the fire going out of the guns,” said Ismail Sallam. “It’s a bad scene. It’s a nightmare.”
Sallam was driving on I-75 near Bond Hill at 10:39 p.m. Wednesday when things suddenly took a terrible turn.
“I’m just coming back from college. I don’t know what happened. I hear shooting. I can see the fire from the guns, maybe 10-15 times,” Sallam said.
Police said people in two vehicles were firing at each other. One of the vehicles slammed into Sallam.
Sallam hit the wall in the center of the interstate and flipped. He ended up upside down in the middle of the dark interstate as drivers continued down the road unaware of the trouble.
Sallam said he didn’t know what to do.
“Should I go out or not, know what I mean, should I go out and cars hit me, or should they hit me inside of my car? It’s just a weird feeling,” he said.
The other two cars continued until they sideswiped each other, sending one vehicle off the road and into an embankment.
The driver of that car was a 15-year-old. He was hospitalized with gunshot wounds. A 20-year-old in the same car was hit by gunfire and transported to the hospital as well.
The driver in the third vehicle took off and has not been found.
It’s all been too much for Sallam.
“I’m happy I’m alive, to be honest,” he said.
“I can’t sleep all night, of course, you’re dreaming that,” Sallam said. “I’m OK. I can walk. I’m alive. That’s the thing I’m most happy with because everyone who saw the car said, ‘how did you even get out?’”
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