HOUSTON – A man who was paralyzed after being shot in a botched street robbery is trying to help police find the two suspects who put him in  a wheel chair.
Clarence Davis, 47, was paralyzed from the waist down Aug. 15 after a gunman shot him in the back.
He is struggling to regain some semblance of the independent life that was taken from him.
"Sometimes it hurts, it hurts me real bad 'cause I'm at this place I really don't want to be in," Davis said. "Once I get where I need to be at, I will be happy. Thanks to the good Lord I'm still here."
Davis worked the swing shift as a dishwasher at the IHOP on Westheimer Road near Bering Drive. When he went across the street to catch his bus for home that night, two men appeared out of the darkness, demanding his cellphone and wallet.
Davis threw them his cellphone, but then turned to run back to the restaurant.
"When I tried to run from the bus stop, they just shot me in my back," he said. "As soon as I fell to the ground, I fell on my back, and soon as I tried to raise up and move this, I knew I was paralyzed."
Wounded and unable to move, Davis said he could only lie in the middle of the street, screaming for help. He said a bus and several cars simply drove around him, until finally a man in a white BMW stopped and called for help.
The two men who robbed him got away, but maybe not for long. On Tuesday, Davis helped an artist work up a composite drawing of the man who shot him for his phone and a few dollars. He hopes it will help police find him.
"I'm just being honest with you, they can just rot in jail for all I care," Davis said.
Police are asking anyone who has information about the robbery, or who recognizes the suspect in the composite drawing to call Houston Crime Stoppers at 713-222-8477. A reward of up to $5,000 is offered.
