Colorado mom shot during juvenile crime spree, now confined to wheelchair

PUEBLO, Colo. (KKTV) - A mother who is now in a wheelchair after being shot twice is sharing her story with 11 News.

She is just one of a long list of victims associated with a car-jacking spree in Pueblo last month.

“The youngest one [shooting suspect] is the one that got me,” the mother of two said. “So crazy to me that he was 12 because this one [refers to her son] is 10 and he is just so innocent.”

Chenise Sena is a single mother of two whose whole life changed while walking to her car in front of her house on the northeast side of Pueblo.

She said she had just dropped her kids off at school and was getting back in her car when two other vehicles pulled up beside her.

In a matter of seconds, Sena was facing down the barrel of a gun, with a person in a face mask staring back at her. He demanded her car keys.

“I’m kind of inching towards the house as this is all going on, and I turn my back for one second and no hesitation, two shots fired,” Sena said. “I’m on the floor. I couldn’t move my legs, and that’s when I started to panic. I started screaming.”

She says one of those bullets entered her back- just missing her spine.

The other ricocheted into her bladder and then shattered the femur in her right leg.

“I do blame myself a little bit for it; I know I shouldn’t, but I keep thinking to myself like what I could’ve done to avoid the situation,” Sena said. “Should I have just given them my keys?”

Sena is now confined to a wheelchair. Her new reality is endless doctor appointments, medications and bed rest.

She says this has impacted her kids in a big way too.

“They were so scared,” Sena said. “You know things are kind of dying down a little bit now, so we are going outside a little more, but they couldn’t even go play outside; they were so afraid to walk outside their door.”

Since the attack, the family has updated their security systems at home. They hope to one day get back to a sense of feeling safe.

“I didn’t really pay too much attention to what was going on in the news before, but once this happened to me, I really started to pay attention,” Sena said. “And it just blows my mind that they continue to keep hurting people over and over and over.”

Pueblo police said they believe four carjackers were involved in this crime spree. They are all minors and all facing first-degree attempted murder charges.

In this case, it will be up to the district attorney to decide if they are charged as adults.

“I feel that they should be charged as adults not just because of what happened to me but because there are so many other people that have been hurt,” Sena said. “But obviously, these kids are influenced from somewhere. They are getting the guns from somewhere.”

Sena’s goal now is to get out of her wheelchair.

“Yes, I will walk again,” Sena said. “It’s gonna take some time, but I’m going to walk, and that makes me very happy.”

Sena tells me she also hopes to return to work after she heals. Until then, she says the bills are still coming in.

There is a GoFundMe for the family and a fundraiser on April 15th.

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