Mom Whitney Austin shot 12 times at Cincinnati

A mother who was shot in Cincinnati 12 times during a shootout said she was playing dead for the shooter to continue.

On September 6, Whitney Austin was one of the many people shot dead by 29-year-old Omar Perez in a bank hall.

A few minutes before the shoot, Austin was late for work at the fifth bank's headquarters. She was on a conference call as she headed for the revolving door but never got there.

"Probably a few inches before the bullets hit me and it was a burning sensation," Austin said.

She fell to the ground and spat blood.

"And that's when my brain immediately went to" I'm dying, "she said." I immediately thought, "I'm going to say goodbye to my Family, and I knew that I could not say goodbye to the kids – they were in school, I thought he'd seen me move and he shot me several times. "

Shot 12 times, Austin played until she saw a policeman.

"I scream at him:" I have a child of 5 and 7 years old who needs his mother. You must save me. Come get me. Come get me. "And he looks at me, at which point they hunt him down and shoot him," Austin said.

A photo captured the moment she was safe while the police called her husband, Waller Austin.

He said, "She was involved in an active shot, she was repeatedly hit in her chest. "And I was just stirring, I could not put anything together," said her husband.

Whitney Austin spent five days in the hospital. Four people died that day, including the shooter.

While she was lying in her hospital bed, Whitney Austin said she was considering creating a nonprofit organization in order to address mental health issues, background checks and other problems to put an end to senseless shootings.

She has since launched a non-profit association called Whitney Strong, which aims to reduce gun violence by keeping firearms responsibly.

"It's about making sure our children can go to school and not having to do weekly active shooting exercises, so people like me can go to their workplace and not be shoot it 12 times ".