Woman rethinks career after being shot by police

CTV Toronto: Bystander shot by police Scott Lightfoot meets with a woman who is rethinking her career options after being shot by a police officer.

A Humber College police foundations student is re-evaluating her planned career after she was shot last weekend -- by police.

Suzan Zreik, 21, tells CTV Toronto’s Scott Lightfoot she was in her Mississauga kitchen minding her own business last Friday around 10 p.m. when a bullet pierced her back and became lodged just an inch from her spine.

She says the officer who shot her initially didn’t believe it had happened.

“Then he tried to justify his actions,” she says. “He’s like, ‘Yeah, we had to shoot … he had a knife.’”

Zreik was shot by a stray bullet during a police confrontation that left a 30-year-old man dead and two police officers injured.

It happened on Queen Frederica Drive, near Dixie Road and Dundas Street East.

Zreik says she was sent to hospital and released the following day.

She says she was interviewed by both Peel Regional Police and the Special Investigations Unit, which is called in after police incidents resulting in death or serious injury.

Zreik says she will undergo surgery in two weeks to remove the bullet.

In the meantime, she can’t sit or walk without pain, has been crying and is afraid to go back into the kitchen at night.

“With how close the bullet is to my spine, I could have been paralyzed,” she says. “My entire life could have been gone.”

Now, she’s not sure a career as a police officer is right for her.

“I’m scared that I’m going to get shot again.”

With a report from CTV Toronto's Scott Lightfoot