Dushawn Beecher was visiting family at his aunt’s house in Harrisburg when he got a phone call that would change the course of his life.
It was June 2, and a group of friends wanted Beecher to celebrate a birthday in downtown Harrisburg. He agreed and headed toward North Second Street around 1 a.m.
“I’ll be back, I’ll be fine,” the 33-year-old reassured his family before he left that night.
But the night turned out to be anything but fine.
Just an hour later, he found himself in the middle of chaos on North Second Street as the bars and restaurants closed and people streamed outside.
Arguments broke out, and Harrisburg police fired pepper spray into the crowd to try to quell the hostility. Instead, gunshots rang out.
Beecher ran as he heard what he thought were 30 to 40 gunshots near Second and Locust streets. The bullets weren’t intended for him, but one hit him in the back.
He didn’t feel the bullet, but something immediately felt wrong. Beecher struggled to breathe and collapsed in the alley near Sawyer’s, with blood streaming from his nose and mouth. As he did, bystanders pulled out their phones and started recording him.
“I immediately got back up because I didn’t want that to be my last ending,” he said. “I didn’t want to die there.”
Beecher ran to a Harrisburg police cruiser doing a U-turn in the middle of Second Street. He banged on the windows, yelling, “I’m hit! I’m hit!”
Seeing how badly he was hurt, Officer Leea Abdelmalek got out of her cruiser, loaded him into the passenger seat and took off, going the wrong way down Second Street to Harrisburg Hospital.
Beecher was hospitalized in critical condition and immediately underwent emergency three-hour surgery. He awoke hours later, hooked to breathing and chest tubes, but alive.
Doctors told Beecher the bullet passed two inches from his heart, shattered his rib cage and clipped one of his lungs. A piece of his lung was removed during surgery. He also needed 19 stitches on his torso.
“You must have some guardian angel over you. We didn’t think you were going to make it,” the hospital staff said, according to Beecher.
Beecher credits Abdelmalek for saving his life by breaking from typical police protocol and taking him straight down the street to a hospital, versus waiting with him at the scene for EMS to arrive.
Police Lt. Kyle Gautsch said transporting shooting victims in cruisers is not common practice, mainly because Dauphin County has many EMS responders and police cruisers can’t offer the same level of stability for patients that ambulances can.
But in Beecher’s case, Adelmalek’s quick-thinking saved precious time.
“The officers did an outstanding job to recognize the necessity to get the victim to a hospital as quickly as possible,” Gautsch said. “Based on the severity of the injuries and proximity of the event to a hospital, the officers used their best judgement in order to preserve the life of the victim.”
Beecher said the officer’s arrival at just the right moment made all the difference.
“I honestly thought that was going to be it for me,” Beecher said. “I saw that cop, and that cop really gave me hope.”
Beecher may suffer long-lasting effects from the bullet that remains in his back. Doctors told him he will never run at full speed again, and that he might experience breathing complications. The way he walks and talks could change because of his lung damage.
“I’m just really thankful I’m not dead or paralyzed,” he said.
Harrisburg police charged one man with carrying a stolen gun that night, and are still trying to identify who shot Beecher as of Tuesday. Police released surveillance footage of his shooter last week and are looking for tips from the public.
Over the years, Beecher has had to watch 20 close friends and family members get killed in Dauphin County. One of them was his brother Duwan Stern, who was 26 when he was fatally shot in December 2005 in his car at 20th and Swatara streets.
Beecher said it was upsetting to see social media reports after he got shot claiming it was gang-related. Police believe he was an innocent bystander.
“I’m nowhere close to a gang. I run a painting business,” he said.
Beecher is the CEO of Beech’s Painting Services LLC, a business he founded in March 2020 right before the COVID-19 pandemic. The business has thrived, despite the timing, and he has six people working for him. He said he can assign jobs to employees while he spends up to three or four months recovering from the shooting.
But even after he recovers, Beecher said he has no plans to return to downtown. He said that part of the city has grown significantly more dangerous since he turned 21, and friends had recently been urging him to stop going there.
“I was fairly comfortable going downtown. I like to enjoy the scene a little bit,” he said. “[But] I’m never stepping foot back downtown.”
Beecher said he has noticed an increase in the number of underage people on Second Street early in the morning each weekend. He believes that stems from a lack of age-appropriate activities for them in the city.
“Downtown is definitely getting more violent,” he said.
Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying Beecher’s shooter. Anyone with information can call the Harrisburg police at 717-558-6900 or submit a tip through CrimeWatch.
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