Woman who was shot multiple times tells her story as part of exhibit

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - UofL Health has teamed up with the Speed Art Museum to tell the stories of more than a dozen of people who have survived of traumatic experiences in Louisville.

“It’s important to remember that there is a life after the traumatic experience happened,” writer Conner Mackowiak said.

Conner Mackowiak and Scotty Perry worked together to put together the exhibit that features 16 trauma survivors. Perry took the pictures and Mackowiak wrote the stories. The exhibit is a culmination of four years of work.

One of those stories is Valentina Boyd’s.

“His mood just changed,” Boyd said. “It went from being happy-go-lucky to like a demon possessed his body.”

On September 18th, 2021 Boyd and her ex-boyfriend were at Wyandotte Park.

She tried to walk away from him after he had a sudden mood change, but he shot her.

“He unloaded the whole gun. Five bullets on me,” Boyd said. “Three grazed my right side, the fourth bullet I believe they said hit me in the hip and came out an inch from my femur.”

The incident changed her. She said she had to fight off some demons within herself for a little while.

“I secluded myself for a long time until one day something just popped inside of me like, ‘you can’t do this,’” Boyd said. “I feel the great man above spared my life for a reason and that is to be a voice for the women who are too scared and the women who can no longer speak.”

In her exhibit, there’s a picture of Boyd and two women.

Boyd calls Ellen and Stephanie, the two women in the photo, angels.

They were playing pickleball in the park when Boyd was shot, and they rushed to her aid and literally gave her the shirts off their back.

“I knew that there was a woman on the right side of me holding pressure on those wounds, but I never knew who was on the left side of this bench where they set me,” Boyd said. “It was Ellen. You can see in the video they take their shirts off, and Stephanie says [she’s wearing] the actual shirt.”

Boyd said she searched for them for a year and a half, but it was Perry who was able to connect them again.

They reunited once again in front of the exhibit of the moment that brought them all together for the first time.

Copyright 2023 WAVE. All rights reserved.