Daily Pennsylvanian: Can you describe what happened the night of the incident?
Mari Oishi: We were at a friend's birthday party ... until about 2:30. [Engineering sophomore] Andrew [Jennings] decided it was better to go out the [back] exit so we walked out the [back] exit and we were just standing outside behind the fence and we were talking, having a casual conversation. [College sophomore] Regina [Lam] started to walk out onto the sidewalk and that's when we heard the gunshot. We just kind of looked back and we saw two guys. One was shooting. We just saw these white flashes of light and the other guy was kind of hunched over and they were running down 38th St. We were literally just outside the house and we just turned around and ran back inside the house right at the corner of 38th and Walnut. I don't really remember when the pain started. It just kind of felt like a cramp in my leg and I think it was as soon as we started running [that it began]. I remember seeing Andrew in front of me. I think Regina was trying to help me and then at the steps that's when I touched the back of my leg and said, "I think I got hit" and I looked at my hands and they were all bloody and that's when I realized [I had been shot].
DP: How has the University responded to your needs? What are they doing to assist you?
MO: The past three days, that's what we've been working on: all the logistics of the little things. For me, it's hard to go outside so there's a lot of accomodations that need to be made. I get escorted by the Penn Police and Special Services everywhere. This one detective -- Perdetha Watson -- has been great to me. I love her. She makes me feel really safe and she's been there for me throughout this whole thing. The University is paying for my parents' travel expenses and Amy Gutmann sent me flowers and dinner and lunch. They've been getting note-takers for my classes [and] audiotaping them.
DP: Do you feel safe walking around campus now after the incident?
MO: It's kind of hard because you know it's an accident. You know it wasn't intended to happen to me but I do have a hard time. It's so fresh still and after this shock happened and everything is sinking in, it's only natural for it to be difficult go outside. I don't enjoy being outside. If I go outside, it's for a purpose -- to get from one point to another, to get into a car that's going to take me somewhere else. I don't want to go outside if there's another form of transportation.
DP: Do you think that will change as time goes on?
MO: Definitely. It's going to take awhile to really get adjusted. I've gone to class a million times and it's safe and this was a one in a million chance and it happened, but right now it's kind of fresh. With time, I do think it will get better and that's my ultimate goal.
DP: After you recover, do you think you'll still go outside late at night?
MO: Definitely. I think that will take time, but before this incident, I was that student who was scared to use 898-RIDE. I was embarrassed. I felt like I was making security guards do something that wasn't really necessary. I do think that in that way I'm definitely going to change that. I feel like everyone should use 898-RIDE late at night -- even though on that night, we hadn't even decided our form of transportation and we really did nothing wrong. We were in the safe part of the neighborhood and we hadn't decided anything. But I do think [Penn's services should be used] as a precaution now because I thought, I'm one out of how many people. Nothing ever bad is going to happen to me and it did. So I think that everyone should be using those facilities that the University is offering to us -- 898-RIDE, the walking escorts -- and knowing to avoid places, not walking by yourself, and those kind of things.
DP: Is there anything that the police and/or the University could have done to prevent this specific incident?
MO: To prevent this specific incident, I think it's hard to say because it was almost like a freak accident. We literally didn't do anything wrong; we walked out of this house and it happened. And if anything I would say that having policemen on more corners, just notifying Philadelphia that Penn is serious and we do have a strong security presence and almost like having to make a reputation to the city that you just can't come into the campus and do criminal-type things [would all deter crime]. And extra lighting -- Sansom is a pretty unlit area -- but it's hard to say. I do think that extra security presence [would help]. There wasn't [a police officer] on 38th and Walnut that night. But I know there's really high surveillance around the entire campus so I think that's a really good thing the University does.
DP: How has your day-to-day life changed?
MO: I get up in the morning and I go to the health center and they check up on my wounds. There's a lot of things to work out with the school. My needs are different now. Just all the little things: when am I going to go back to class, how am I going to get transported to class when my parents leave, how am I going to get to physical therapy and occupational therapy. Little things like that have changed. That's basically what these past few days have been all about: working with the school and figuring things out and just resting. I usually just try to catch up on sleep. Sleep is hard.
DP: How is your recovery progressing?
MO: It's actually looking really good. Basically, the bullet came from behind my thigh and exited the other side and the two holes look really good. They're closing up really nice. The main part is that it tore up my muscle so my muscle really hurts and there's a lot of bruising now. But the recovery looks really good and even in four or five days, I can get around much easier. The pain is bad, but if I wanted to I could get up and put a little bit of weight on this leg. Not a lot [and] I couldn't move but I could stand up maybe. And today I tried to go to class for the first time. I went to one class today for 15 minutes. It was a trial run.
DP: Have they given you a timeframe of when you'll be totally recovered?
MO: The doctor thinks in maybe five days or so, I can maybe put some weight on it and try to walk. Right now, the crutches are hard to use but hopefully in two weeks I'll be really good on the crutches and that's when I can really begin physical therapy. So I expect to gain full capability maybe at the end of February [or] beginning of March.
DP: What was the reaction of your parents and your friends?
MO: My parents were really good about it. When it happened, I almost called them on the spot because I was so scared something bad was going to happen like I was going to die or lose my leg and I just wanted to talk to my parents. But I realized that wasn't such a great idea to put more stress on my parents than necessary. But they dealt with it really well. They flew up as soon as they could and when Regina told them, my mom was really calm. Definitely, all of us are stressed out but that's just natural. But they've been really supportive and it meant a lot that they came up here because it helped a lot in my recovery.
Regina's helped me a lot. All my friends have been so great. They've given me flowers and gifts and they've made the whole situation a lot easier to deal with.
DP: Any other thoughts?
MO: One thing I wanted to say was an overall message to the Penn community. Before what I used to do was justify a robbery happening by saying [the victims] were at the wrong place, they were out at the wrong time, [and] it's never going to happen to me. Everyone probably reading this is thinking, It's never going to happen to me. I've read in so many articles that Penn students feel so safe and they should because a shooting probably won't happen. But I think the most important idea is not to take for granted those things that you think might never happen to you because they can. Don't be in denial. This is real. It's an urban city and it's unsafe. Every urban city is unsafe. And any positive thing that can come from this is everyone being a little safer, thinking more about their choices, and not making risks that are unnecessary because there are a lot of things you can do to protect yourself.
Penn has done a lot so we'll see have everything works out. We've run into a lot of difficulties trying to use the facilities but hopefully everything will turn out and I'll get what I need to make life a little easier.
