TUKWILA, Wash. — The family of a military veteran is worried that he won't ever walk again after he was shot while driving on I-5 near Tukwila on Feb. 19. They say the 35-year-old was shot at nearly 20 times, and a couple of those bullets hit him.
"Right now, the only thing we can do it have faith in Evan,” said Adam Hershey, Evan’s brother.
He said Evan is someone who has spent much of his life serving others, joining the Navy soon after he graduated from high school.
Now, Evan's focus is on recovering from what happened on that February night just before 11 p.m. He was driving on I-5 in Tukwila when his family says he was the victim of a random ambush.
"When the bullet struck him, it took out his kidney and landed in his spinal cord,” said Adam Hershey. "He was receiving fire from an unknown direction at a high rate of speed, and he managed to, without the use of his legs, make a controlled stop not only saving his own vehicle, managing to avoid collisions with others."
It's the kind of case Washington State Patrol is tracking in King County where there were more than 50 freeway shootings in 2022. There were 57 last year, and this year there have already been 12 freeway shootings.
Evan's brother said he is focused what's next.
"I fear that it's a life without makes use of his legs,” he said. "I'm praying that I am wrong, and that he's just going to end up proving everybody wrong and just start walking again and running again and lifting weights again doing what he loves doing, but the sad reality is that we just don't know."
That's why they've started an online effort, raising funds for Evan's new normal. So far, donations have reached $40,000 of a $65,000 goal. The funds will be used in part to help make Evan's home wheelchair accessible, the family said.
"Everyone has really gotten behind Evan,” he said. "At the end of the day, Evan has not lost himself. You can't take that from him, and I don't think he is going to let anybody do that. Our faith has to be in Evan, and then we will get hope from that."
Detectives urge anyone with information about the shooting to call Washington State Patrol.