Sunoco

Demetrius Wilson Jr., 23, is in jail after Cleveland police say he shot three people at the Sunoco gas station at East 55th Street and Payne Avenue in Cleveland.

(Cory Shaffer, cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Willoughby man charged with attempted murder shot a woman, her boyfriend and their friend at a Cleveland gas station in July after the woman refused to give him her phone number, she said.

Demetrius Wilson Jr., 23, is in a Cleveland jail cell awaiting his first court appearance after he opened fire outside the Sunoco gas station at East 55th Street and Payne Avenue, police said.

"You don't know what people are capable of or what they'll actually do to you just for saying 'no,'" the woman, Kortnee Taylor, told cleveland.com Friday in a phone interview. "It's really scary."

Taylor, her boyfriend of four years Rashun Hill and some friends went to the gas station about 4 a.m. July 16 for some chicken fingers and corned beef sandwiches after they spent the night at a night club.

Wilson walked up as the group waited in line and asked Taylor for her phone number. Taylor told him that she wasn't interested, and walked out of the store, she said.

Wilson followed her out of the store. Hill and the others walked out shortly after Wilson. When they got outside, a man tried to intervene and provoke Hill, Taylor said. The two argued for a bit, and the man ran toward East 55th Street. Hill gave chase, Taylor said. She and one of her friends walked after them.

The man who provoked the fight ran toward Wilson, who was waiting on the apron of a driveway next to the gas station with a gun, Taylor said. Wilson opened fire, she said.

A bullet struck Hill's chest. One hit Taylor's right thigh and lodged in her femur. Another bullet hit their friend in the right side.

Surveillance cameras captured the shooting, according to a police report.

Taylor said that after viewing the surveillance footage, she believes the second man baited the group into running toward Wilson.

"It wasn't something that just happened spur of the moment. He planned to shoot us," she said.

Detectives obtained an arrest warrant charging Wilson on Sept. 8. He was arrested this week. Taylor and Hill picked Wilson's photograph out of a lineup Thursday night, she said.

Wilson was indicted Sept. 9 by a Lake County grand jury on receiving stolen property and misuse of a credit card charges.

Taylor said she had to use a walker to get around for several weeks after the shooting, and completed a physical therapy program.

But as bad as the physical effects of the shooting were, she said the mental impact his just as bad. She now gets uneasy when she is in a crowded place, especially when there a lot of men around, she said.

"I never know what's going to happen," she said.

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