On a harmless night out with friends, the last text message Michéla Outerbridge sent to her mother read: “Don’t worry mom, it isn’t like I am going to get shot or anything, I love you”. Moments later she was the a victim of a senseless act of gun violence.

Speaking for the first time since the incident Michéla Outerbridge, 17, spoke to The Royal Gazette – reliving in vivid detail the night that she was shot three times outside the Western Stars Sports Club in Pembroke.

Along with Antoine Tuzo, 39, Michéla was one of two victims hit during a seemingly random drive-by shooting on Easter Sunday.

“I just kept thinking ‘please don’t let me die’,” Michéla recalled. “I was thinking of my mother, my family and all my friends. I was scared also because I was so close to graduating from school and I didn’t want to miss out on that.”

She added: “The ride to the hospital felt like the longest drive of my life.”

Now, four months since the incident, Michéla has rebounded and despite a few scars has made a full recovery and managed to graduate from CedarBridge Academy despite the obstacles thrown in her path. Having been awarded two scholarships along with her diploma, she is now looking towards the future.

“It feels absolutely lovely to have graduated,” said a smiling Michéla. “I had a lot of catching up to do because I missed three weeks of school after the shooting but I managed to get everything done in time – it was tough but I did it. It feels really good to know that I don’t have to wear a school uniform any more or sit through my math and science classes ever again.”

She added: “It was also hard dealing with all the questions from my peers and even teachers – It was non-stop. I got pretty tired of answering the same questions over and over again.”

Michéla and Mr. Tuzo were shot at the venue on St. John’s Road, Pembroke, shortly before midnight on Sunday, April 4. Police say the pair were shot by gunmen who fired indiscriminately into the Pembroke venue during a party to celebrate Dandy Town’s football team winning the Premier Division title.

Michéla said there has been no evidence to suggest that either she or Mr. Tuzo were targeted in the shooting; they were just unlucky victims in a pointless act of horrific violence.

The double shooting was the third incident involving firearms over the Easter weekend, which also saw the murder of 35-year-old Kimwandae Walker in front of his two children on Good Friday, a shooting at the Victor Scott school field..

According to Michéla, she was sitting on some bleachers conversing with a girlfriend when she heard two loud bangs. Just before the shooting began she had received a text from her mother asking her to be home by a certain time. Moments before the bullets started flying she replied with “don’t worry mom, it isn’t like I am going to get shot or anything, I<>love you.”

”All of a sudden I<>heard two loud bangs, but I<>hardly reacted, it didn’t register to me,” she said. “It was my friend who got scared first. She gripped my arm and we ran towards the field and then into the club. It was not until we were inside that I realised I had been shot.”

As everyone around her reacted to the gunshots Michéla, leaning against a soda machine, slowly realised that she had been shot.

”I saw blood squirting out of my right forearm like a fountain and felt a burning in my stomach,” she said.

It was only then Michéla discovered she had been shot three times. There was one bullet lodged in her right forearm, another had gone through her left bicep and a third had entered the right side of her abdomen – miraculously missing all major organs and exiting through her left side. She later discovered two more bullets had grazed her body – one across her abdomen and another scraping her left breast.

The people around her, noticing her condition, began to remove shirts to use as tourniquet and immediately called the emergency services. Not wasting any time a family friend of Michéla took her to hospital in his car.

”That was the longest ride of my life,”said Michéla. “When we got to the hospital he drove right up on the sidewalk and there were already people waiting with a gurney to rush me inside.

”One of the nurses began to start cutting all my clothes off. I had been wearing some nice clothe and I was delirious – I remember screaming at her and telling her not to ruin my clothes. I was completely out of it and even tried put my hand around her throat.”

Despite some initial concern from doctors about causing possible nerve damage by removing the bullet from her forearm, they eventually did and Michéla has recovered almost completely.

”It still hurts sometimes and I am using acupuncture to help with that,” she said. “Sometimes my scars get irritated when I am in the sun and I need to massage them every once in awhile but other than that I am fine.”

She added: “But I am definitely more aware of my surroundings now. I am not comfortable at crowded, outdoor parties. And when I hear about other shootings it definitely hits home and affects me more.”

Her outlook on life has changed too, she says, having developed a new sense of respect for life.

"I am so much more grateful for what I have now and I really feel for those less fortunate than I," Michéla said. "I am happy to be alive and a graduate of CedarBridge Academy and now I am looking to the future."

Michéla plans to enrol at Bermuda College in the coming school year to get a liberal arts degree before going abroad to study law. While she is not sure what type of law she will practise she says she does not want to be the kind of lawyer that defends people like those that shot her.