Woman shot in chest on CTA bus

January 18, 2013 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- A woman survived being shot while riding on a CTA bus. She escaped serious injury, but only by a matter of inches.

The shooting happened Thursday night as the bus was stopped near the intersection of 69th and Yale on the city's South Side.

Romona Rogers-Washington was brought to the 69th Street Red Line Red Line stop after she was shot. Now, she is recovering and talking about how she could have lost her life after she was shot during bus ride home.

"I am blessed, I am lucky and I feel fine," said Rogers-Washington.

That's how a wounded, but upbeat, Rogers-Washington says she feels a day after she was shot while riding a CTA bus.

It happened Thursday evening, just before 9 p.m., as the 57-year-old rode the #67 bus to her home in the Hamilton Park neighborhood from her job as a home care assistant.

Rogers-Washington says shots rang out after a few guys who had gotten into an argument on the eastbound bus got off and then opened fire. Rogers-Washington was struck by a single bullet in the wrist and the right breast.

"Somebody said there's blood on the floor, and I looked on the floor and it was by me," said Rogers-Washington. "Then I looked at my arm, it was bleeding, I seen the hole."

The quick-thinking driver of the bus sped out of the area and eventually stopped at the 69th Street Red Line station. No one else was injured.

Doctors told Rogers-Washington's relatives she was lucky to be alive.

"It's one bullet that went through my arm into my right breast," said Rogers-Washington. Doctors told her, if she were a man, she might not have survived.

Friday afternoon, as she headed to her first check-up since the shooting, Rogers-Washington said she has no plans to stop riding the bus and doesn't blame transit officials for what happened.

Rogers-Washington says she doesn't know how long she will be off work.

Chicago police officials say no arrests have been made and no one is in custody.

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local, evelyn holmes

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