'I'm very resilient'
A brave Bronx High School of Science student who was shot by a bullet that pierced her family’s front door last year is terrified that the attacker is still on the loose — but refuses to let the nightmare ruin her life.
“I think someone should have been arrested by now,” Tamima Samira, now 16, told The Post last week. “We don’t know who did it. We don’t know what their intentions were. And like, that’s scary. And that’s honestly terrifying.
“Emotionally, I feel fantastic. Never been better,” the teen said.
“I was raised in New York City. I don’t think I could ever imagine myself living anywhere else.
“But in terms of like, how am I feeling about the incident in general? I feel like, you know, that shouldn’t have happened.”
The Queens teen was doing her homework in the dining room of her family’s house on 113th Road near 205th Street in St. Albans around 11 p.m. June 7 when a bullet whizzed through the front door.
Tamima Samira remains “resilient” a year after she was wounded by a stray bullet while doing homework inside her Queens home. Stephen Yang
The then-15-year-old was struck in the right shin.
“We thought it was fireworks for like the first 10 seconds, and my dad went to open the door to see what was going on outside. And then when I couldn’t get up from my chair and felt the pain in my leg — then we realized someone had shot at our front door,” she recalled.
Footage from a neighbor’s home surveillance system shows three suspects pull out guns and open fire before fleeing toward Francis Lewis Boulevard, sources told The Post.
While the motive for the shooting and the intended target remain a mystery, Samira’s family does not believe the bullets were meant for them.
Around 20 bullets struck the front of the house.
Samira’s mom tied a tourniquet around the teen’s leg after she was shot in the right shin. BRIGITTE STELZER
“It felt like I was being electrocuted,” Samira said last year of the moment she was hit.
But Samira still had the presence of mind to tell her father not to open the door.
“I’m absolutely certain that if my dad had opened the door at that moment, he would have been shot, too,” she said.
Her mother rushed to tie a tourniquet around the teen’s wound, and her father called 911.Samira underwent surgery to remove the bullet from her leg.
The Bronx Science junior has only praise for NYPD investigators, saying they are “genuine” when she calls them for updates on her case.
“The investigation is ongoing,” the NYPD said.
The gunfire left a bullet hole in the family’s front door. BRIGITTE STELZER
An NYPD officer stands guard outside the front door after the shooting. Matthew McDermott
Mohammad Hossain, Samira’s dad, said the family is baffled over why bullets flew at the house.
“We have no enemies,” he said.
As for continuing to live in the Big Apple, Samira underscored, “It’s different for everybody” but added that “being from New York City” and “living in such a crime-heavy city” has left her somewhat unfazed.
“Gun violence isn’t the only crime that goes on in New York City, you know,” she said, adding, “People get pushed onto the train tracks, and I use the subway regularly for going to school, for going to tutoring and for traveling in general, and the subway safety is honestly awful.”
The shooting remains unsolved, the NYPD said. Matthew McDermott
Still, she said she is more conscious about gun violence since the shooting, adding, “To live in a country where you have more shootings in a year than you have days is absolutely insane.”
The high-school student, who enjoys forensic data analysis, philosophy, listening to the K-Pop girl group Dreamcatcher and playing the glockenspiel, refuses to let the shooting ruin her vibe.
“I’m very resilient, and that has been one of my defining traits since the moment I was born. . . . and that has been instilled within me by the people who have cared for me all my life. And I think that’s really special,” said Samira, who is originally from Bangladesh and moved to Queens when she was a toddler.
Source: New York Post
