Tim Edwards, the first victim of the shooting rampage from June 21, 2013, was a guest on Talk of the Town Tuesday morning, April 1. Edwards, 64, was sitting in his vehicle in front of the Kellum Law Firm, across the street from the Greenville Walmart, when Lakim Faust walked up and shot him in the arm and the face through the window of his car. Edwards was the first of five shooting victims that Friday morning.

The interview, broadcast live on 103.7 WTIB and Cable 7 TV, was the first time Edwards has spoken publicly about the incident. He has had several surgeries and more are scheduled for the near future.

Faust opened fire on Edwards and then walked across Greenville Boulevard and shot four other men. Police arrived on the scene quickly and were able to take Faust down with a non-fatal volley of fire as he walked across Hooker Road.

Excerpts from the interview

Henry Hinton:  Has it been hard to talk about?

Tim Edwards:  It’s been a gradual process. As time has gone on, I’ve read articles in the paper and I’ve tried to keep up with the shooter…The first week (after the shooting) I was in an induced coma, then for 15 days I was under medication.

HH:  On June 21st, 2013, you were working for Geico Insurance. You were sitting in a Geico vehicle outside the Kellum Law Firm.

TE:  I had just left a check inside Kellum and had returned to my car to complete some paperwork. Suddenly I heard a ‘boom’ and glass shattered and I realized I had been shot. I didn’t see him coming.

HH:  The first shot was to your left arm in the bicep region.

TE:  Yes. And I turned to look at my arm and he shot me in the right side of my face. I started to climb out of the car and all I saw were boots running away. I walked to the front door of Kellum and a woman named Crystal (Crystal Gramates from Arnold, Maryland), who was in town for a wedding and staying at the City Bistro, ran to my aid. She told me to sit down on the sidewalk. Crystal had been a paramedic for 14 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. I call her my guardian angel.

HH:  She administered first aid that saved your life.

TE:  Crystal asked for clean towels from someone at the nail salon next to Kellum and she held them to my face until medics arrived 20 minutes later. Crystal asked me if I was on any medications. I told her that I was on  a blood thinner. So, she did save my life.

HH:  The Greenville Police Department was on the scene almost immediately.

TE:  Yes, but the paramedics went first to the Walmart parking lot because that was the call they got.

HH:  After shooting you, Faust crossed Greenville Boulevard and continued shooting.

TE:  I remember hearing people talk about Walmart.

HH:  Brenda (Tim’s wife), when did you hear the news?

Brenda Edwards:  We were planning to leave town to go to Charleston, South Carolina. I went with my grandsons to Target to buy some supplies for the trip. Back in the car, the boys said, “Call Grandpa and tell him to meet us at Chili’s.” I called Tim with the message. I called again after a bit and Tim said that he would meet us shortly. Brandi, our daughter, came in. Soon her husband Michael called and asked where Tim happened to be. When he learned that Tim was at Kellum, he told us to meet him at the hospital, that there had been some kind of accident. We were stopped by a policeman we know on Greenville Boulevard who, without telling us anything, finally let us through.

HH:  How many surgeries has Tim undergone?

BE:  He’s had five surgeries for various things: arm, face, skin grafts. Tim had three strokes during one procedure.

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Tim Edwards has more surgical procedures scheduled: dental prosthetics, implants, plastic surgery.

Watch the interview with Tim Edwards in its entirety here: