As the bullets of Rex Whitmire Harbour’s 9mm pistol flew across Ga. 365, all Harvey Kerby could think about was if he would live.
Kerby was one of two people caught in the crossfire of Harbour's sniper-style attack Friday in Hall County.
RELATED: Sheriff: Hall County sniper-style attack inspired by Parkland school shooter
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A bullet pierced Kerby’s car, passed through his seat belt and struck him in his hip as he drove on the highway.
“I was worried I was gonna bleed to death," Kerby told Channel 2 Action News in an exclusive interview. “... If he would have shot a foot higher, it may have killed me.”
Kerby’s metal hip implant kept the bullet from traveling any further.
Credit: WSB-TV
Credit: WSB-TV
Authorities were notified of the shooting about noon Friday, when drivers called 911 “to say they had been shot at,” sheriff’s spokesman Derreck Booth said.
Soon after, deputies spotted a “suspicious vehicle” pulling out of a wooded area near the highway, Booth said.
"When he came out of the road, he didn't do it at a high rate of speed,” Kerby told Channel 2. “He tried to sneak out, but they caught him.”
The driver, later identified as Harbour, fled a traffic stop by the Georgia State Patrol and stopped in the highway median. He was found unconscious. Harbour allegedly shot himself and died due to his injuries while en route to a hospital.
Authorities said Harbour, 26, of Snellville, "idolized" shooter Nikolas Cruz, who killed 17 people at Florida's Parkland High School in February. Investigators found handwritten documents in Harbour's home that allegedly called Cruz a "hero" who gave him "courage and confidence."
Investigators found three 9mm pistols, a 12-gauge shotgun, a BB gun and more than 3,400 rounds of ammunition in Harbour’s vehicle. At least 17 shell casings were found near the site of the shooting.
Kerby was relieved to know Harbour was the only fatality in the shootings.
"The good thing is they got him,” he said, “and that'll be one bad guy in this world we won't have to worry about.”
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