A Nov. 15 Metro article incorrectly identified the hospital where Katie Weyer spent her 17th birthday after she was accidentally shot at a pool party in Howard County. She was treated at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, not Johns Hopkins Hospital.
From 'I'm Gonna Die' To Helping Save Others
Teen Gunshot Victim Finds a New Focus
Katie Weyer, right, has persuaded friends such as Megan Marland, left, to donate blood, telling them, "You could save a life."
(Photos By Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)
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Tuesday, November 15, 2005
A tiny divot is still visible on the tip of 18-year-old Katie Weyer's nose, a reminder of the feeding tube that practically rubbed her cartilage right off.
Her once-lovely singing voice is now husky from the ventilator that chafed her vocal cords until they were raw. And just above her right collarbone is a small scar -- the size of a mole -- that marks the entrance of the bullet that nearly took her life.
It happened last year, on the lazy afternoon of July 6. Weyer had woken up late, as usual. After taking her younger brother, Jake, to Blockbuster, she and a friend headed to a classmate's house in western Howard County to hang out.
Weyer had never met Benjamin Mark Allen before arriving at his family's home, although they both attended Glenelg High School. Allen had just graduated, a grade ahead of Weyer, and they had mutual friends. Everyone was swimming in the backyard pool when she got there.
Weyer didn't have a bathing suit, so she just dangled her legs in the water.
"Eventually, I guess, everyone got bored," she said later.
Some of the boys decided to shoot squirrels to pass the time. But Weyer wasn't interested. She wanted to swim, so her host agreed to lend her a suit. She went inside the house to change and use the bathroom. Allen went inside to get his father's gun, a .22-caliber Hi-Standard revolver.
According to court documents, Weyer came out of the bathroom and saw Allen across the hall in the study, the gun in his hand.
"You shouldn't play with guns," she said, according to the documents.
"Oh really?" he responded.
He made a joking sound and pointed the gun in her direction, the documents say. He pulled the trigger. A bullet fired. Weyer crumpled to the ground.
"I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die!" she remembered saying. Her friends tried to stop the bleeding from her chest with a blue washcloth, but soon everyone was covered in blood.
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