Delaware man injured in Istanbul attack returns home
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Being pushed through the airport in Istanbul on a gurney was certainly was not the way Jacob Raak intended to return home to Delaware.
But at least he gets to go home and for that he's grateful.
"All I can say is it's a massive tragedy. This is very unfortunate," Raak said.
Raak is the lone American known to have been wounded in the upscale Istanbul nightclub shooting that's left 39 dead.
Raak, a Chadds Ford, Delaware County native who is now a business owner in Greenville, Del., was helped onto a wheelchair and spoke with reporters Monday before heading to his gate.
"I don't want to talk about what happened in the club," Raak said.
Raak did speak briefly immediately after the shooting while being loaded into an ambulance.
"I was shot in the leg. These crazy people came in shooting everything. I saw one person," Raak said at the time.
As of now authorities are still looking shooter.
Isis has claimed responsibility for the attack, calling the shooter a soldier.
The gunman walked into the club as a New Year's celebration was underway and opened fire.
Raak tells reporters that he, as well as many others, played dead.
Raak also says he continued to play dead after he was shot.
Raak is a small business-owner currently living in Greenville Delaware.
His brother told Action News he was visiting Turkey's largest city with friends to ring in the New Year.
"I was with nine people and seven of us were shot," Raak said.
Raak was struck in the hip.
He says his cell phone blocked part of the bullet and redirected it to his knee.
Doctors tell him that likely saved his life.
He says he knows he's lucky.
"For me I wake up in the United States, I eat breakfast. You guys wake up and have to think of this. It's so, so sad. I really wish everyone here the best," Raak told the reporters in Turkey.
The 35-year-old landed at Philadelphia International Airport around 7:50 p.m. Officials escorted him out an exit not normally used by arriving international passengers.
