UF law student shot in Las Vegas says she’s more determined to be a criminal prosecutor

LAS VEGAS (CBS4) University of Florida law student Kristin Babik said she was in disbelief Sunday night when she first heard the crackle of gunfire at the Route 91 Harvest festival on the Las Vegas Strip.

“I couldn’t believe at the time that it was a gun, and I didn’t want to,” Babik said on Tuesday. “There was even some people who were yelling, ‘Don’t worry, don’t worry. It’s nothing.’ Second time came around, more people started to realize what it was. And after the third time, we knew.”

A bullet struck the 24-year-old Gainesville native in the back, lodging between the vertebrae in her spine. She said she felt a splatter, and something wet drip down her back.

She didn’t immediately realize she had been shot.

“I started running toward the back. And I realized I couldn’t breathe,” Babik told O’Donnell.

She was rushed by ambulance to the University Medical Center with a collapsed lung and broken ribs.

She kept asking the doctor one question.

“I kept asking him, ‘am I gonna be okay? All I want to do is graduate law school.’ And when she told me the bullet was in my spine or close to it, then my second question was, ‘am I gonna be paralyzed? Am I gonna be able to walk again?’ And she told me when I woke up after they put the tube in my chest, ‘you’re gonna graduate and you’re gonna be able to run a marathon. You’re gonna run again.'”

She said the shooting gave her a renewed purpose to graduate in May and become a criminal prosecutor.

“As long as there’s no more tubes in my chest, I think I’ll be able to walk across the stage,” Babik said.