Ethan Pritchard was shot in the head, then 'a miracle' happened — SkimNews
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- Ethan Pritchard, a true freshman walk-on at Florida State, was shot in the head on August 31, 2025, as he put his Dodge Charger in reverse to shield his aunt and 3-year-old niece from a barrage of 71 rounds; 70 missed, and one bullet fired at close range entered his skull.
- Multiple gunmen waiting outside the Havana Heights apartment complex fired the shots after mistaking Pritchard's silver 2023 Dodge Charger for a different 2023 Charger they had been targeting as it passed by.
- Dr. G. Patton Pennington, a trauma surgeon at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, said the bullet remains lodged in Pritchard's skull because removing it could cause more damage; doctors induced a 30-day coma and placed a bolt in his head to monitor brain pressure, calling his initial prognosis 'grim.'
- Pritchard recalled a coma vision of his late mother Andrea — who died of a brain aneurysm on Christmas Day 2008 at age 30 — alongside a late aunt and Jesus, saying he heard his mother tell him, 'It's not your time,' before he woke up.
- Earl Pritchard, Ethan's father, reached the scene within a minute but found the car doors pinned shut after it slammed into a shed and was impaled by a wooden beam; he climbed onto the hood and kicked at the windshield trying to reach his unconscious, blood-covered son.
- Zealene Lawrence, the aunt riding in the car and her young granddaughter in the back seat both escaped unharmed; after Ethan regained the ability to speak, he called her to ask, 'Did I save y'all?' and she told him yes.
- Florida State head coach Mike Norvell was alerted by director of football relations Corey Fuller and arrived at the hospital with staff before Earl Pritchard did; Pritchard has since said he aims to play football again, telling the newspaper, 'What I'm doing now — it's going to be something for the world to watch.'
Why it matters: Seventy-one rounds fired at a moving car with a child inside, and the shooters had the wrong vehicle — that's the operative fact, not the spiritual framing. Pritchard's surgeon called his initial prognosis 'grim' and the bullet remains in his skull by medical necessity, yet a Division I freshman is publicly planning a return to the field, making this both a case study in random gun violence at a Havana apartment complex and a recovery story still unfolding.
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