Jennifer and Steve on the Maury show.
Here's a link to the person that shot her and paralyzed her. America's most wanted.
http://www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=43897
Please help us find him. Read the story at AMW Jose "Tacho" Ramon Sastre-Cintron
Learning To Live With Paralysis
By MARK ********
07/29/2002
Jennifer M.********'s life isn't a story of miracles — it's a tale of the struggle to make a life in the wake of tragedy.
Two years ago, she was shot and paralyzed when she refused to give an intoxicated man keys to a car after a party. Jennifer, 20, said that's when a man she knew as Jose Tacho Ramirez, the boyfriend of a woman she was staying with, took out a .22-caliber revolver and put one small slug through her neck.
The bullet severed her spinal cord and exploded into six pieces. Jennifer instantly was paralyzed from the chest down.
She was taken to the University of Virginia Medical Center, then spent months in rehab. After a six-month wait, she entered the prestigious ******* Rehabilitation Center in Virginia. For two months, she learned how to make a life of her own, and now she has.
Hard Road
But recovery hasn't been an easy road.
"The anniversaries are tough," she said. One date in particular, July 23, the anniversary of her shooting, brings up a wealth of renewed pain. Jennifer still has all six pieces of the bullet in her back, and doctors at U.Va. have told her she must live with the pain or risk a dangerous operation to remove them.
For now the pain is bearable. The feelings of isolation are another story.
Most of her old friends find Jenifer's condition too hard to deal with and have stopped visiting. A kitten she adopted two weeks ago helps her with the loneliness.
"Sometimes when I see people I knew, they won't even stop to say, 'Hi,' " Jennifer said. "Other times they'll stop and give me a hug and talk. But they really don't know how to deal with someone who's in a wheelchair."
The ordeal of losing friends is hard, but Jennifer's family has provided emotional and financial support. She counts among her closest friends three people she met as a result of the tragedy: her counselor, Bernie ******; her caseworker, Traci *****; and Steven *******.
Jennifer met Steve in rehab, and she sees her counselor and caseworker once a week.She also made new friends at the rehab Center. Like her, they were patients learning to live on their own. Now, because they have moved to different areas of the state, she rarely sees them.
Rising Above
But the tragedy has returned some positive results for Jennifer. It has taught lessons about life she may never have learned."People shouldn't take life to advantage because a second later you could lying on the floor, not able to walk again," she said. "You can't take life for granted because you never know what's going to happen." Before the shooting, she dropped out of High School and moved out of her parents' house during her senior year. She admits now that she was on a self-destructive path.
"Once I dropped out, I wouldn't have gone back," she said. But the shooting changed that.Jennifer decided she wanted to become a counselor. So she took the classes she missed and completed her senior year. She graduated in 2001, a year behind her twin sister.Jennifer will start classes at a Community College soon, and after graduating, she wants to go to a four-year school for a counseling degree.
"When I was shot, I didn't believe in God," she said. "But now, I know there's a reason I was put in this wheelchair. I just need to find out what it is. Maybe it's to help people. "Jennifer lives in subsidized housing, supplementing a monthly disability check with help from her family. She is struggling to gain her independence, though.
She tried to take a part-time job, but a pressure sore she developed on a long bus ride to visit her sister hasn't allowed her to work. The company is holding the job, though, and she is hopeful for her future.
"I'd like to move out of this place," she said, looking around her small efficiency apartment.
The Search
Jennifer is struggling to regain her freedom, but her alleged attacker is running loose. Police now believe "Jose Tacho Ramirez" is actually Jose Ramon Sastre-Cintron. Harrisonburg
police have filed warrants for the arrest of Sastre-Cintron. Sastre-Cintron, 25, has felony warrants out for firing a weapon in a dwelling, use of a gun to maliciously wound, and car theft. Investigators also suspect he is out of the area, possibly out of the country.
Jennifer said Sastre-Cintron's arrest would make her day and provide some solace.
"It'll make me feel better on the inside," she said. "I can't walk anymore, and it's not fair that he's out there free and I'm in this wheelchair."
he stuck by her thru all those shitty times and suffering. and she turns her back on him. what a bitch.
mbtkabjd 2 years ago 26
He looked like a nice guy...
Alexizizcrazy 2 years ago 16