MIAMI (WSVN) - A Florida woman accused of shooting a man outside of a Hooters restaurant in Miami nearly two years ago defended her decision to open fire, saying she was protecting her family when they were threatened, and her attorney said the man involved used a racial slur.
Quanesha Lewis awaits trial on charges of attempted murder, child abuse and improper discharge of a firearm for shooting Darren Campbell on Feb. 27, 2021.
Speaking with 7News on Wednesday, Lewis said she has received death threats.
“I’ve been told that I should be dead, that people are going to come and kill my children,” she said.
Campbell was with his then 8-year-old daughter Jade at the time of the shooting. A recording of the 911 call captured the child pleading for help.
“What’s your address and emergency?” the dispatcher asked.
“Somebody help my daddy!” she said.
“I’m shot, I’m shot,” Campbell told the dispatcher.
Police said Lewis shot Campbell after an encounter in the restaurant that was captured on surveillance video.
Lewis said she was protecting herself and her little nieces and nephews that night after, she claims, Campbell threatened to slash her tires and then threatened her life.
“I wanted a way to protect my family,” she said.
7News spoke with Campbell last week about the health challenges he has faced in the aftermath of the shooting.
“I got hit in the abdomen, and I got hit in the chest,” he said.
Physical therapy video showed Campbell learning to walk again.
“He’s walking,” Jade said in the video.
Lewis, who lives in Tampa, said she was in Miami at the time of the incident to attend a family member’s funeral.
After her arrest, she said, she was fired from her health care job.
“The last two years have been really rough for me,” she said. “This has impacted my life and the life of my family greatly.”
Moreover, Lewis said, she has been bombarded with death and hate threats online.
“A lot of them are racist in nature,” she said.
Wednesday’s often emotional interview with 7News marks the first time Lewis has spoken publicly since her arrest.
She declined to discuss details of the case on the advice of her attorney, except to say why she’s seen walking behind Campbell just before she shot him twice.
“I went to move my vehicle,” she said.
That’s because, she said, Campbell told her he was headed to slash her tires.
Public defender Alexander Shear said Campbell used a racial slur.
“[He told her], ‘I’m going to kill you, N-word. Get back in the restaurant, N-word. Over and over again, he made threats to Miss Lewis’ life,” Shear.
Shear did not specify who said Campbell used the N-word, but he said there are witnesses who heard the threats and the N-word being yelled just before the shooting.
That’s what, Shear alleges, Campbell was seen appearing to reach into his pocket before Lewis shot him down.
“The only thing to reasonably conclude is, that is a firearm, and if I don’t respond, I’m going to die,'” he said.
Campbell was unarmed.
“Sure, but if someone’s going around saying the N-word and ‘I’m going to kill you’ and then reaches, unless you have X-ray vision, there’s no way to know that they’re not,” said Shear.
A “stand your ground” hearing will determine how and whether this case goes forward. A date for the hearing will be announced for later this month.
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