Fulton County

‘All she was trying to do was help:’ Son speaks after mother shot while feeding the needy

EAST POINT, Ga. — The 75-year-old woman shot while distributing food to the needy says she could have been killed.

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Channel 2’s Tom Jones spoke to Dorothy Gordon’s son at Grady Hospital, where she is recovering.

“They still got to get the bullet out,” Justin Gordon said.

Gordon said doctors are waiting for his mother’s pain to subside before removing the bullet.

“She’s still in pain, but she is not as much pain as she was yesterday,” he said.

East Point police say someone shot Dorothy Gordon as she passed out food to the needy at the gas station on Washington Road near Camp Creek Parkway.

It happened around nine that Wednesday morning, something her son finds disturbing.

“Nobody sane would shoot at nine o’clock in the morning. So it’s gotta be somebody way out just shooting at somebody,” the victim’s son said.

Police now believe the gunman was sitting in a tree in the woods across from the gas station when the shooter opened fire. Officers say video shows a flash from a tree right when Gordon was hit.

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Police aren’t sure if the shooter intended to hit Dorothy Gordon or someone else.

Her son says the shooting makes no sense.

“People who she was trying to help-- they was mad too-- because all she was trying to do is help people,” he told Jones.

Justin Gordon told Jones the bullet barely missed his mother’s spine.

“When I talked to her yesterday, she said it’s a good thing it didn’t hit her in the chest because it would have been fatal,” Justin Gordon said.

Police say they are working hard to figure out who shot Dorothy Gordon and why.

Her son says the person who shot her interrupted his mother’s mission to feed people in the area out of her own pocket.

“She goes to Publix. She gets it from them, and she just donates it to people,” he said.

Justin Gordon says doctors have his mother sedated because of the pain and will remove the bullet once she is better.

Meanwhile, police have been searching the wooded area looking for evidence that might point to the shooter.

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