Her own cellphone video captured the start of the terrifying gunfire that changed Esther’s life forever.

The six gunshots left her with permanent injuries and, for now, tethered to a tracheostomy tube she must use to speak.

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She asked News4 to conceal her identity, so only her first name is being used.

“I struggle to breathe,” Esther said. “I struggle to talk with it.”

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Collins Agyei, her son’s father and the man who nearly killed her, was sentenced to 23 years in prison on Thursday.

Her severe injuries and long recovery meant Esther was unable to testify at trial, but she’s able to tell her story now.

It was just days after she got a protective order against Agyei in February 2023 when he came to her Fairfax County apartment and confronted her in the hallway with a gun.

Esther said she pretended to text as she started recording video .

“I knew I had to capture something,” she said. “If I’m going down, I wanted something to capture.”

When the gunfire began, she was driven by one thought: get outside.

“Everything went black… If he’s going to kill me, somebody I need will be outside to see something, so I knew I had to run outside for my life,” she said.

Esther ran toward a neighbor’s patio. Security camera video shows Agyei continuing to fire, one shot ricocheting off the ground.

First responders arrived quickly. Even with six bullets in her body, Esther found thestrength to whisper her attacker’s name.

“I was numb. I didn't feel anything from the shot,” she said. “Even when he kept shooting, I didn't feel anything. I just felt my body slowing down, shutting down.”

When she got to Inova Fairfax Hospital, doctors testified Esther was clinically dead.

Her brother, Ebenezer Arko, was fearful he would lose his closet of four siblings.

“This is a person who has been shot six times…” Arko said. “The likelihood of her surviving was, to me, very little.”

“To find myself waking up again was a big surprise and shock to me…” Esther said. “Those doctors fought hard to bring me back.”

Esther did not leave the hospital until May. She said in the early, painful weeks, she almost gave up, but the love for her 7-year-old son, her brother’s frequent presence and her family gave her the encouragement she needed.

“To see my son was the biggest form of support for me,” she said. “It pushed me to live even though at some point, I wanted to give up.”

Even though her injuries left her unable to testify or attend the December trial, Esther was in court last week as the judge sentenced Agyei. It was the first time she saw him since the gunfire.

Agyei offered no apology.

“I wanted him to look at me,” Esther said. “I wanted him to see my reaction, but he didn’t turn around for one second. But deep down, He knows what he did was wrong.”

“An intent to kill the mother of your child. No remorse. That’s an evil person,” Arko said.

Esther and Arko have high praise for the first responders, the detectives and prosecutors who handled her case.

But a mistake made by prosecutors during the trial meant a charge that carried a possible life term had to be dropped.

“I’m not mad at the person, I’m just upset the system couldn’t allow him to get a lifetime,” Esther said.

Esther’s new life is often confined to her bedroom, but her colorful artwork brightens the space. She had to move in with her brother, who now cares for her and her son. She must use a walker or wheelchair to get around.

The latest of Esther’s many surgeries is this week at University of Virginia Health to close the tracheostomy and repair her airway.

“I hope and pray they will be able to fix my airway so I don’t have to rely on my trach forever,” she said.

Esther’s big smile only grew larger as she shared her greatest, very simple hope: to someday be able once again to take her son to parks and playgrounds, to leave her wheelchair behind and to walk unassisted alongside her little boy.

The family has an online fundraiser. Arko has had to cut back his work hours to care for his sister and nephew, so they are hoping for help with their mounting costs.