Syracuse Regional Transportation Center security guard shot 19 months suffers physically, mentally
Syracuse, N.Y. Dec 12 2021 — Jah’Theel Selmon still remembers the blank eyes of the man holding a gun to his face at the Syracuse bus/train station.
What’s your problem, the security guard recalls asking the man who just mumbled something in return.
Suddenly, the man pointed the gun at the guard’s stomach and fired.
“It felt like heat…,” he said. “I did not even want to look down, I was too scared.”
Selmon is a security guard at the Syracuse Regional Transportation Center who 19 months ago helped save a father and three children by getting them into a breakroom when a man started firing a gun inside the station.
The shooter, Andrew Booker, shot Selmon in the stomach and another man in the leg.
People waiting for buses and trains and employees scrambled for cover when he opened fire that Sunday in May 2020. His gun jammed several times, so he was only able to fire four times, a prosecutor said.
Booker, 32, of Massachusetts, is scheduled to be sentenced today to 18 years in state prison. He pleaded guilty to attempted murder in October.
Selmon, 30, a Nottingham High School graduate, recently sat down with Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard to talk about what happened that day.
It was a routine night for Selmon who arrived at midnight to relieve another guard. He walked around the station every 45 minutes to make sure everything was OK, checking on passengers and the building.
Booker was traveling from Massachusetts to Ohio, but the bus he was supposed to take was delayed for mechanical reasons.
Selmon said he saw Booker at one point laughing, talking with other people in the waiting room. Booker briefly talked with the guard, asking Selmon where he was from.
Selmon said he found Booker unsettling.
“I didn’t want to hold a conversation too much because I didn’t like how his eyes was,” he said. “I was like why was he acting like that towards me? And I should’ve picked that up as a sign.”
Just minutes later Selmon heard noises that he says he will never forget.
“I hear the ‘pat pat pat’ you can hear the gunshots echo,” he said. “I wasn’t even too sure it was a gunshot at first but then I realized…. I see everybody running.”
A father, Antoine Allen, from Michigan, ran up to him with three children, all under the age of 5.
Can you hide me and my kids somewhere? Selmon recalls the father asking.
They were near a bus driver’s breakroom but Selmon had to punch a code in to get into the locked room. In the chaos, he was worried he wouldn’t get the code correct.
He got it right on the first try and the door opened. The family all rushed into the room.
With the father and kids in the room, Selmon turned to close the door, but Booker was right there.
“He had a blank stare, it’s like looking at Michael Myers,” Selmon said.
Booker held the gun up to Selmon’s face and then shot him in the stomach. Selmon said. The force of the gunshot pushed Selmon back into the room and Booker went with him.
In one corner was the family. In another corner, Selmon and Booker wrestled for Booker’s gun, the guard said.
He said he was losing blood and feeling weaker as they fought, but he wanted to get the gun away from Booker.
Selmon broke free and ran out the back door expecting Booker to chase after him. Instead, Booker went back into the main part of the bus/train station.
Selmon said he was limping around the outside of the building.
“I never looked down at my wound,” he said. “I just put pressure on it. I didn’t want to go in shock.”
Selmon, who had a gun on him, said he suddenly had a new fear: Would people think he was the shooter?
“What if one of them had a full carry (gun license) and thought I was the shooter and killed me?” he said. “I could’ve easily been shot by the police if they seen me.”
Selmon said he limped from bus to bus, avoiding Booker’s gunfire. He tried to calculate how much ammo Booker had left. Starting to feel weak, he said his goal was to get closer to the building in case he passed out.
“I figured ok if I’m gonna die I’m gonna take this guy out with me,” he said.
Selmon had his own gun on him that day, something that’s against company policy. He never fired his weapon because he said he was worried about getting in trouble, hitting an innocent person or angering Booker further.
Selmon said he put one bullet in the chamber, prepared to try to stop Booker, but then police officers arrived.
“The police came through the other door at the perfect time,” Selmon said.
He said he pocketed his gun and laid down on the ground with his hands up. He explained what happened and gave the police his gun. Selmon said at first, he was treated like a suspect instead of a victim.
Many people called Selmon a hero for his actions that day.
“His actions were selfless and incredibly heroic and assuredly saved lives,” District Attorney William Fitzpatrick told Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard the day after the shooting. “God bless him.”
Today Selmon has a small circular scar that interrupts a sprawling tattoo on his chest and stomach. A longer scar lower down on his stomach shows where doctors cut him open to take the bullet out, he said.
Luckily, he said none of his organs were hit by the bullet.
Selmon said he still hasn’t fully recovered.
He goes to a chiropractor twice a week and said he takes a lot of medications. He said before being shot he was an avid gym goer. He played basketball with friends, did cartwheels, and lifted weights.
“I can’t walk up steps, I can’t run, I can’t do anything,” Selmon said.
It’s not just his physical body that was damaged that day, he said.
“I’m not myself at all. This guy altered my life physically, emotionally, and mentally,” Selmon said.
At night, Selmon said he often relives it all.
“Straight nightmares, like it’s shooting, like I can hear the sounds, wake up, to look at him in the face,” he said. “Oh it’s disgusting, the way it feels.”
Selmon still works at the train/bus station but on lighter duty. He wishes bus and train stations were secured like airports with metal detectors and passenger searches.
In court today, Selmon plans to give a victim impact statement. He said he’s written multiple pages in a notebook about what he plans to say.
His message, he said, will not be forgiveness. He’s not happy with the expected prison sentence.
“Like really? 18 years?” Selmon said. “That all he gets for shooting two people?”
