‘I’m blessed’: Disabled veteran survives being shot by man who accused him of stolen valor

SEATTLE (KIRO) - A disabled Navy veteran says he’s grateful to be alive after he was shot in the chest while busking on Seattle’s waterfront.

Harold Powell, 68, is recovering at home after being released from the hospital last Sunday. The disabled Navy veteran, who uses a wheelchair, says he was busking on Seattle’s waterfront July 31, like he has been for the past 30 years.

Powell says a man, later identified as 32-year-old Gregory Timm, walked up to him and accused him of “stolen valor,” which is falsely claiming to have served in the military. Powell offered to show Timm his military ID, but before he could get to it, he says it was too late.

Prosecutors say Timm pulled a handgun from a zipped bag and fired it once into Powell’s chest. The incident was caught on camera.

“I seen the slug. I can see the heat of the slug coming at me then just, ‘Boom!’ Knocked me back,” Powell said.

He says he thought that was the end for him.

“I just went to ‘I’m going to die, so let me call my family. Forget everything else.’ That’s just all I thought. I didn’t worry about nothing else,” he said.

Powell says the bullet cracked his ribs, but luckily, it did not strike any vital organs.

“[Doctors] didn’t believe it, after all these X-rays, that I can live after being shot like that,” he said.

Powell says his service in the Navy ended when he was struck by a drunken driver in 1991. Since 1995, he’s been playing music for donations on Seattle’s waterfront.

“Practiced being in bad situations all my life. Especially being on a submarine, you just gotta be ready not to. If you have to face that moment, you got to practice,” he said.

Following the shooting, Timm was arrested, but Powell says he hasn’t given him much thought.

“I refuse to complain, and I’m not going to let this guy, nothing about this guy, live in my mind for rent free,” he said.

Instead, Powell says he’s focused on himself and his family.

“Moving around slowly and moving around faster. I’m just blessed, man. I can still do my thing with my family. I’m blessed,” he said.

Powell’s family set up a GoFundMe to help him with expenses as he recovers.

Timm was being held in King County Jail on $750,000 bail after a judge found probable cause for assault and robbery.