Witness recalls moment when boyfriend was injured in Zombicon shooting

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Witness (Hannah Wheeler) recalls moment when boyfriend was injured in Zombicon shooting. WINK News

Hannah Wheeler was 16 years old when her mom let her go to Zombicon alone for the first time.

On that day, Oct. 17, 2015, a shooter opened fire on a crowd of thousands in downtown Fort Myers killing one person and injuring five others.

Wheeler’s boyfriend at the time, Isaiah Knight, was one of the victims injured in the shooting. The couple was holding hands when Knight was shot in the thigh.

“I saw the flash of the gun, like the light, and I was just … I didn’t know what to think, I just started running,” Wheeler said. “It was traumatic.”

Wheeler does not remember seeing the shooter’s face, just a flash from the gun and then a mob of people running.

“It was really confusing in the waiting room at the hospital. Nobody knew who got shot, nobody knew what blood was real and what blood was fake … it was a mess,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler said learning alleged shooter Jose Raul Bonilla, 23, was arrested is a relief but there are still parts of Downtown Fort Myers where she doesn’t like going to.

“It’s really uncomfortable for me, I don’t like walking past certain areas,” Wheeler said.

Bonilla was arrested Monday and faces charges of second-degree murder, five counts of aggravated battery and destroying or tampering with evidence.

“It’s nice to see that law enforcement has been working on this the whole time. We may not have known this as a community that they were working on this, but they were,” attorney Scott Goldberg said.

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