'I was bleeding out:' Pregnant woman shot 7 times outside Fayetteville store loses unborn child

A pregnant woman who was shot multiple times outside a convenience store in Fayetteville has lost her unborn child.

She shared her story with WRAL Fayetteville reporter Gilbert Baez.

The shooting was breaking news when WRAL reported it on Monday. Witnesses said 25-year-old Brittany Rich was shot three or four times – but after talking with her, Baez learned she was shot seven times.

The tragedy was compounded when one of the bullets went into her stomach.

Rich says she had no idea the three men standing near the ice machine outside the Cumberland Food Mart were up to no good.

Security camera video shows Rich leaving the store and the confrontation begins.

"The guy said, 'Give me that!' and grabbed my keys," she recalls. "I thought he was playing, because he was young. And then I went, like, to reach after him, and he shot me."

Rich says the seven gunshots happened so fast.

"I think I was shot two or three times before I really realized that he had a gun," she says. "I looked at him. He had a gun in his hand. I heard it, and I felt it, but I was in shock."

After being shot, surveillance footage shows her stumble around the car for protection then go back inside the store for help.

"When I got in the store, I realized I was bleeding out," she says. "I lay down, and everybody was standing around me, and nobody was really helping."

Meanwhile, the suspects couldn't get the car started. Rich says you have to know how to jiggle the key just right to make it work. Surveillance footage shows them jump from the vehicle and flee on foot.

Rich was taken to the hospital, where they told her she was shot in twice in the elbow. She says she can't feel her arm. She was also shot in her thigh, lower back and in the stomach. She says she was four months pregnant and lost her unborn child.

"I had stomach surgery," she says. "I got 13 staples in my stomach. They took bullets out."

Now, authorities are relying on footage from that security camera to try and identify a suspect. According to the Cumberland County District Attorney, the person who shot Rich could face a murder charge for the death of her unborn child.

Anyone with any information about the shooting is asked to call Fayetteville police.