playAndrea AdelsonSep 16, 2026, 07:00 AM ETClose ACC reporter. Joined ESPN.com in 2010. Graduate of the University of Florida.Multiple AuthorsOpen Extended ReactionsTALLAHASSEE, Fla. — There is still a bullet in Ethan Pritchard’s head.Seventy-one shots were fired at his Dodge Charger last August, and 70 missed. The one that hit him was fired from close range as he put his car in reverse to protect his aunt and his 3-year-old niece in the back seat.Pritchard says he believes he glimpsed the next life while he was in a coma for 30 days.
He recalls a vision he had of his late mother, late aunt and Jesus. He remembers running toward them, but as he got closer, they got farther away. Pritchard can still hear his mother saying, “It’s not your time.” Then he opened his eyes.These days, he tries not to think too much about why this all happened. He knows that if he dwells on all the small things that could have spared him that day, it will do no good.
He was in a dark place when he was thinking that way, right after he woke up from his coma, when he couldn’t move or talk or do anything but blink. So now, he keeps his mind on the future. He thinks about playing football again at Florida State.”Maybe it happened for a reason,” Pritchard says. “What I’m doing now — it’s going to be something for the world to watch.”SOMETIMES, FOR JUST a split second, Pritchard forgets the bullet is there.
He thinks about what life was like before, on the morning of Aug. 31, 2025. Florida State had completed its usual Sunday practice, and Pritchard had impressed the coaching staff — making plays all over the field.The previous day, Florida State had beaten Alabama 31-17 to open the 2025 season, a victory that sent fans storming onto the field and the team into a raucous celebration that lasted into the night. Pritchard had suited up but did not play, a true freshman waiting his turn.For his family, the day meant triumph beyond the scoreboard. Ethan was born in Tallahassee, and his parents, Earl and Andrea, both grew up in Havana, about 30 minutes away.
Andrea attended Florida State and had big dreams for her son. On Christmas Day in 2008, Earl heard a loud thump while Andrea was taking a shower. He found her unresponsive, the shower still running. She had died of a brain aneurysm at the age of 30.
Ethan was just 18 months old. As Ethan grew up, he set his sights on playing at Florida State, hoping to carry forward her legacy.After Andrea died, Earl sent Ethan to live with his two sisters in Sanford, Florida, near Orlando, while he figured out how to start over. He joined them six months later. Ethan grew attached to his aunts, who became mother figures to him.
They delighted in watching him grow from an independent little boy who never let anyone carry his backpack into one of the best football players in central Florida.Ethan’s dad was his everything. Earl went to every game, took him on every recruiting visit, got him whatever he needed so he could play Division I football. When Ethan committed to Florida State in 2023, it felt as if he were with family. Even through a down year for the program in 2024, Ethan never wavered in his commitment to be a Seminole.Earl was at the opener against Alabama, sitting to the right of the band along with a few other family members, and vividly remembers Ethan running out of the tunnel.”To see him in that first game, everything he worked for, it was one of the best feelings in the world.
Like he won the lottery,” Earl Pritchard says. “Just to see him out there dancing, enjoying the crowd, enjoying the win, celebrating with the boys, knowing it’s going to go further after that.”In Havana, the rest of the family had a watch party. Zealene Lawrence, an aunt who helped raise Ethan, said there were between 50 to 60 people at her daughter’s house wearing Pritchard jerseys as they watched for him on the sideline.They planned a big barbecue at Pritchard’s uncle’s house in Havana the next day to celebrate. After the football team dinner, Ethan told Florida State coach Mike Norvell he was going to see his family.
He left Tallahassee in his silver 2023 Dodge Charger to make a drive he had made hundreds of times in his life, north about 18 miles on U.S. 27.As he passed the Havana Heights apartment complex, three blocks from his uncle’s house, multiple gunmen mistook his car for a different 2023 Dodge Charger they had been targeting and waited for it to come back.THE PARTY AT his uncle’s house was in full swing when Ethan arrived, complete with a DJ, food, games and inflatable water slides for the kids. As soon as Ethan pulled up, his family ran out to greet him, taking pictures, hugging him and congratulating him on the game.”I was feeling good,” Ethan said. “We just came off a good win. Just a joyful, joyful moment.”At around 9 p.m., Ethan was getting ready to leave.
His aunt and 3-year-old niece wanted to leave, too, so he offered them a ride home, about 2 miles away. As they pulled up to a four-way stop in front of the Havana Heights apartments, Ethan turned to his aunt and asked, “Should I go straight or left?” Either route would get them home. His aunt told him to turn left so she could check on her sister’s house on the next corner.As he started his left turn, Ethan saw somebody jump in front of the car.”My first thing I thought of was my auntie and my niece,” Pritchard says.He remembers his aunt screaming, “Go! Go!
Go!””A barrage of bullets just started hitting the windshield,” Lawrence recalls. “I wasn’t looking because I was talking to my granddaughter in the backseat. She was like, ‘Look at the fireworks.’ As I turned to look, the glass went, shattering the windshield. By that time, Ethan was already hit.”Ethan had put the car in reverse to try to get away from the bullets.”I can still hear them screaming,” Ethan says.
“I can hear my little niece in the back, she’s crying. You ever been stuck and you were aware of what’s going on but you can’t do nothing? I wasn’t in pain. I just went black, like slowly, slowly, slowly.”The gunmen kept shooting as Ethan slumped over onto Lawrence’s shoulder, blood spilling everywhere.
As he lost consciousness, his foot hit the gas and they sped backward. The bullets kept coming. The car hit a shed and was impaled by a wooden beam. The gunfire finally stopped.
Lawrence blacked out briefly. The cries of her grandchild, unharmed in the back seat, brought her back. Lawrence screamed Ethan’s name, but he did not respond.She held him close and kept telling him, “I got you.”Months later, after he regained his ability to speak, Ethan called his aunt. He needed to know one thing.”Tell me,” he said.
“Did I save y’all?”Lawrence, recounting the conversation through tears, told him, “Yes. You saved us, and I thank you for saving us.””I just wanted you to know that I did my best for you,” he said.Lawrence did her best, too. After the car hit the shed, she picked up her phone.A few blocks away at his uncle’s house, someone shouted, “Turn the music down! There’s a shooting!
Don’t you hear the gunshots?”Lawrence called Earl to tell him Ethan had been shot. He jumped into his car and, within a minute, was at the intersection. The gunmen had already left. There were no streetlights in the area, and because Ethan’s car had slammed into the shed, Earl could not easily find them.
He pulled up his sister’s location on his phone and finally saw the car.Earl’s heart dropped. He could see his son through the windshield, covered with blood, laid out, unconscious. But he had no way to get to him. Because of the way the car hit the shed, the doors were pinned shut.
Earl and two family members got on top of the hood and frantically started kicking at the windshield to break it out. He then got on top of the car to try to break the pole that had impaled the car while yelling for Ethan.Finally, the paramedics arrived. They got Ethan out of the car and removed his clothes as they checked for injuries. His breathing was labored, so they im
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