Survivor of St. Clair Co. road rage shooting shares story, seeks answers

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - One week ago Altovise Mccloud was coming home from work when she was almost killed after an apparent case of road rage.

“I work at UAB, they had to take me back to UAB,” says Mccloud, who is a lab technician at UAB hospital. “I’ve seen things like that but when it’s done to you it’s so different.”

In the blink of an eye, Mccloud’s world changed at a stop sign just minutes from her home. She and multiple people waited on a car sitting idle for several minutes. After someone honked their horn, a woman got out of the car, making her way to Mccloud’s vehicle, furious.

“She said ‘you’ve been following me for days.’ I said ‘ma’am, I don’t know you, I don’t know what you’re talking about.’” Mccloud describes the situation, which quickly escalated.

“I looked down at my purse, and when I looked back over to her, that’s when I saw the barrel and her gun. She was beating on the window with her gun,” Mccloud says. “I looked at the barrel, I looked straight, I was like ‘oh my god, I don’t know you ma’am,’ because she’s just screaming.”

Multiple people who were in cars behind Mccloud watched as the woman fired into Mccloud’s vehicle, which went through her head.

“She shot me, but my hand was here,” as Mccloud describes how she tried to shield herself from the bullet. “She shot me. It went through my hand, it went through my cheek, shattered the tip of my jawbone, and the bone here, a hole in the top of my mouth, came out this way.”

Mccloud spent days in the hospital, and has a long road to recovery ahead of her. Still, she says she’s counting her blessings.

“I still have my teeth, my hand, it shattered my finger, my thumb, got to have multiple surgeries on that one but I still have my nerve, I can still move it,” she says,. “God, even though he couldn’t stop her, he made that bullet the way that it wouldn’t do anything terminal.”

While she still waits for answers, she says she forgives the woman who shot her.

“What were you thinking? What was your mindset? You were trying to kill me, but why?” Mccloud lists the questions she has for the woman. “I still love you, even though your mindset, its not correct. I still love you.”

Mccloud has not yet been able to return to work due to the injury to her hand. Her family has started a GoFundMe to help with surgery expenses. Rebecca Armstrong, the woman charged in the attack, remains in jail with no bond.

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