A Southern California high school basketball player was recovering Saturday from a gunshot wound he suffered on a public bus after winning a championship game.
Reginald Thimes, a straight-A student at Helen Bernstein High School in Hollywood, says he was on a Metro bus heading home to celebrate winning the league title against Roybal High School on Friday when a stray bullet hit him on his side.
The 17-year-old senior said he had a strange feeling something could go wrong that night.
"I thought we were just going to lose the game but like, it turned out to be me getting shot," Thimes said.
About 10:15 p.m. Friday, three men approached a woman in a car at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Western Avenue in South LA, police said. The men opened fire as she began to drive off.
Thimes was riding in the back of the bus, which had taken a detour. He was struck above his left rib by the stray bullet.
"I heard a pop, like the shattered glass, and then I'd seen the shattered glass from my peripheral, and then I dropped to the floor," Thimes said.
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The teen was hit, but managed to walk off the bus and was placed in the back of the ambulance by firefighters.
"They really saved my life," Thimes said. "Once I was getting loaded onto the ambulance I seen my mom finally pull up and as soon as she looked at me she was already tearing (up) and I said, 'Don't cry, don't cry. I'll be all right.'"
Thimes was treated at California Hospital and released to recuperate at home.
His uncle was helping him recover from the wound. The bullet remained lodged in the teen's body.
"It could've hit me in my spine, head," Thimes said.
Thimes was scheduled to return to the hospital next week, about the same time his high school playoff game begins.
The woman who was shot at was treated for cuts from shattered glass, officials said.
Police were searching for the men who opened fire.
Melissa Etezadi and Oleevia Woo contributed to this story.
