MAITLAND, Fla. – As police continue to search for whoever shot a driver along Interstate 4, the victim spoke to Local 6 about the horrifying ordeal.
"I knew I had gotten shot because it felt like a big boom," said Samuel Adams a few hours after coming home from his week-long hospital stay. "I never would have thought that driving up on the highway, just in the split of a second, my life could be almost over. But thank God I'm here."
A bullet stuck Adams, 48, near the Maitland interchange as he was driving in the eastbound lane. He thinks anyone driving on I-4 could have been the victim.
Adams escaped death only to come home to bury his sister. He and his cousin were driving to tell family that his sister, Cynthia Maddox, had just died. A single bullet punctured the windshield and pierced his lung.
"I was trying to still think about my cousin because I'm thinking one gunshot, there could be more," said Adams.
As paramedics rushed him to the hospital, he fought to stay alive for his kids and his mom who had already lost one child.
"You're a father, you're a brother and a son, and you have to think about all those other people. How my mother was feeling knowing both of her children went through this on that terrible night," said Adams. "I was fighting for them."
Adams has no idea where the bullet came from or who fired but he thinks someone aimed at drivers on the highway.
"To me, that's the sign of a marksman," said Adams. "I would like to see them pay to a certain extent to at least show society that they have to pay for what they did."
The bullet is still lodged inside him, and it's the evidence that could help cops catch the shooter.
Adams said his sister's funeral is this Saturday at Calvary Temple of Praise in Sanford, where he's hoping he will be strong enough to give a special tribute to her.