A mother left unable to walk after a shooting in east Tacoma is now out of the hospital and pleading for the public’s help finding whoever pulled the trigger.
TACOMA, Wash. — A Tacoma woman who was shot four times while driving near a local park last month is out of the hospital and speaking publicly for the first time, hoping her story helps lead investigators to whoever opened fire on her car.
Chelsea Heassler was driving with her aunt after midnight on April 21 when gunfire erupted near the entrance to a park by Lister Elementary School in east Tacoma. She said she was turning around to leave when bullets began striking the vehicle — and didn’t stop even as she sped away.
Heassler was shot four times in one leg and required a second incision on her other leg, leaving a scar that runs the length of her shin. She underwent three surgeries and spent more than a week in the hospital. As of this week, she cannot walk.
Her aunt was also struck by gunfire and survived. Tacoma police say 14 bullets hit the car, and a stray bullet struck a nearby home. Investigators recovered 59 shell casings at the scene.
The car Heassler was driving that night belonged to her daughter, Rosella Surita, who was not present during the shooting. Surita said she was on the phone with her mother in the immediate aftermath of the attack and feared she had died when Heassler suddenly went silent.
“There was a point where my mom did stop talking, and I thought that she had passed away,” Surita said.
Heassler said she believes she and her aunt were in the wrong place at the right time, caught in the middle of something already unfolding in the area that night.
“Either they had to have been waiting there for somebody already, or we maybe showed up at the wrong time, and maybe they were doing something in those woods,” she said.
Tacoma police have made no arrests and say they do not have a suspect. Heassler said the uncertainty is what haunts her most as she faces a lengthy recovery.
“I want them to find these people more than anything because it’s just really scary to me,” she said.
Anyone with information about the April 21 shooting is urged to contact the Tacoma Police Department.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help cover Heassler’s recovery costs.
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