Cruisin’ The Coast spectator hit by bullet in gunfight is recovering. ‘He’s a beast.’
The Cruisin’ the Coast spectator shot in a crowd Wednesday night is recovering from his chest wound and will be back for the annual car show on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Retired coach Jerry Todd, 62, of Picayune, was sitting by his classic Mustang on the southeast corner of U.S. 90 and Rodenberg Avenue when a motorist on Rodenberg jumped from his car and began firing into another vehicle, witnesses told the Sun Herald after the shooting.
They said 10 to 15 rounds were fired. The shooter, who has not been identified, jumped back into his car and followed his intended target, in a second vehicle, westbound onto U.S. 90. Police say gunfire was exchanged between the two cars, a black Dodge Charger and a silver Nissan sedan.
Police Capt. Brian Dykes said Friday that the suspects have not been positively identified and no one has been arrested in the incident.
A crowd had gathered along both sides of the highway to watch antique, classic and muscle cars drive by during the 8-day event that attracts thousands and is one of the top car shows in the nation.
“It was just a stupid and senseless act by people with a lack of morals,” Jerry Todd told his daughter, Megan Todd, who has been by her father’s side at USA Hospital’s trauma center in Mobile.
Megan Todd said her father is in a great deal of pain but was fortunate that the bullet struck him in the chest and exited his back without hitting any major organ.
“How anybody could shoot aimlessly into a crowd of people — and you know there had to be children . . . I’ve had every emotion and I’m just left with anger,” she said.
Jerry Todd has a long recovery ahead.
“He has become the ‘luckiest unlucky person’ here lately after having a mild heart attack from a 99% blockage about a month ago,” Megan Todd wrote on Facebook, where she is posting updates on her father’s condition for a multitude of friends. “That was stinted and he improved better than expected.”
A regular Cruisin’ The Coast spectator
Todd is well-known in Picayune, where he has lived for almost 40 years. He coached track and field at Picayune High School before his retirement. He has competed in CrossFit Games and plays competition softball, traveling for games across the South.
Todd registers each year for Cruisin’ The Coast with his 1970 Mustang Boss 302. He has had the car with its calypso coral paint job since he was a high school junior. He was down for the 25th anniversary of Cruisin’ with his best friend from Pontotoc, where Todd grew up.
They were sitting in lawn chairs by his Mustang when Todd was hit in the chest.
“He said it felt like a 10-pound bumblebee sting,” his daughter said. He realized that he had been shot when he moved his hand from his chest and saw blood. Then he heard the shots.
Todd jumped up and ran to the back of his car, where a nurse who happened to be in the crowd took charge.
Megan Todd said she has been able to talk with the nurse and thank her. She was joined by a second nurse, a spectator who kept Todd’s legs elevated and a second spectator who applied pressure to her father’s chest to stanch the flow of blood.
“Thank God for nurses,” she said.
Megan Todd is anxious for her father to return home and expects him to be up and around soon. She described him as a busy retiree who has been “living his best life.”
“He’s a beast,” she said. “This is no average Joe here.”
Registered nurse, spectators help Todd
Registered nurse Monique Pietrowski wasn’t sure Todd was going to make it. She was in the crowd and rushed over to help him. God put her in the right place, she said.
She is not currently working at a hospital but has previously worked in critical and trauma care around the country.
“That was my wheelhouse, anyway,” she said, adding that Todd could have bled to death without quick intervention.
“Everybody pitched in,” she said. “Each of those people who were helping were heroes.”
“My husband’s a Marine. He ran toward the gunfire.” When Scott Pietrowski heard someone had been shot, he looked back to the south side of the highway, saw his wife on the ground and, at first, thought it was her.
“It was a very, very scary night for everyone around there,” she said.
She is relieved that Todd will be OK.
“There was a lot of blood,” she said.
She kept him talking to help with his chances of survival. She asked, for instance, about the best day of his life.
He said, “The day my daughter was born.”
Pietrowski called Todd “a sweet guy” and said, “Honestly, I can’t wait to see him and give him a hug.”
This story was originally published October 8, 2021 at 3:04 PM.
