STOCKTON, Calif — Less than three weeks after surviving a near deadly shooting, 45-year old Bobby Gayle waited Thursday morning outside a courtroom on the eighth floor of the San Joaquin County Superior Courthouse in Downtown Stockton.
"I want to make sure people like him is not out on the streets walking around because of the hatred that I felt from him... I believe he will do it again," Gayle said.
Gayle, along with his sister and other family and friends, gathered to see in person the man who allegedly tried to gun Gayle down.
"He basically tried to take my brother from me. He tried to take his life, and he's standing there with perfect poise with that hatred aimed at my brother," said Monica Gayle, Bobby Gayle's sister.
It was nearly three weeks ago on Oct. 8, a late Friday night, when Gayle had finished up a construction job inside a North Stockton restaurant off Pacific Avenue.
Prosecutors say Michael Hayes drove his pick-up truck nearby, past a Wells Fargo Bank branch, prompting Gayle to tell him to slow down. Afterward, he allegedly got out, shouted the "N-word" twice and opened fire.
Gayle was shot seven times, including twice to his head. At the courthouse, the wounds were still visible, including one where a bullet is still lodged in his skull.
"The way he had the look in his eye of hatred, he had more hate in him than I had in me, and he's the one who was shooting me," Bobby Gayle said.
Hayes was charged with attempted murder, a weapons charge and a hate crime. He made a very brief appearance in court on Thursday. Attorneys asked the arraignment be continued to Dec. 1.
"Calling Bobby a "N-word" and all that kind of stuff right here in Stockton just shows you the mentality that some people have and the hatred some have," said Ralph White, a family friend, former Stockton City Councilman and long time community activist.
Bobby Gayle sat in the front row with his eyes peering back and forth at Hayes sitting behind glass in an orange jailhouse jumpsuit about 50 feet away. He idled as unanswered questions lingered in his head.
"Why would he want to kill me the way he tried and wonder if he is shocked to see that I am still alive? I wanted to get eye contact with him. Nothing, no hatred or anything like that. I just want to know why he tried to kill me," Bobby Gayle said.
Hayes remains in the San Joaquin County Jail on no bail.
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