'I thought I would die': Hartsville pizza delivery driver recalls being shot in 2019 armed robbery

HARTSVILLE, S.C. (WBTW) — It was a slow night at the Pizza Hut in Hartsville.

Not too many calls were coming through, and the night in July 2019 seemed to be a loss. The night crew was preparing for closing until one call came in.

Last-minute calls aren’t unusual in the pizza delivery business, so Hartsville native Joshua Poole, who was 19, grabbed the order and made his way to the Palmetto Apartments, where he parked his car and walked out as usual.

Poole said he took only a few steps from his car before two masked men hopped out with guns from behind the apartment complex.

“Get in the car,” one masked man demanded.

Poole, a quick-thinker, responded, “I’ll give you my cell phone, my money, but I am not getting into the car.”

Then, one of the men pulled out a gun, pointed it at Poole and demanded that he get into the backseat of his own car. Poole conceded.

While one of the masked men held him at gunpoint, Poole said the other man started digging through his front-seat console, presumably looking for money.

An item from the console dropped and made a noise. When the man who had Poole at gunpoint looked back, Poole took the opportunity to fight for his life.

The fight for his life

Poole grabbed the masked man’s wrist and started beating him.

“I didn’t know what else to do,” Poole said. “In the moment, I felt like either way I would die, so either fight to get out of this or get taken somewhere for them to kill me.”

The two were fighting, and Poole almost grabbed the gun when he heard a shot ring out. At the time, he didn’t realize he was hit.

“All I knew was that my legs weren’t working,” Poole said. “I guess it was the adrenaline.”

After being shot, Poole said he can recall how one of the masked men was standing over him with a gun. He pointed the gun at Poole and pulled the trigger, but the gun jammed.

The two men than ran away.

“I’m not sure where they went,” Poole said. “They just kind of ran off in the distance. Maybe the gun jammed because of the fight. I’m not sure why, but it didn’t work.”

Poole crawled to his car, drove it as best he could to a well-lit area, and called 911. The next days to follow were a fight for his life.

Before tragedy

Poole is no stranger to hard work. He had just graduated from Mayo High School for Math, Science, and Technology in 2018, and had just come home from Marine Corp job training where he was stationed in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

He was working to save money before going to college. He had plans to go to the Citadel, a military college in Charleston, where he hoped to graduate and eventually become an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps.

But those plans were changed. His injury made him unfit for service.

“I sometimes get bummed about that,” Poole said. “I really wanted to make a career out of the Marine Corps. When people ask me about the incident, this part gets to me. It was a confidence blow.”

The irony of the situation is Poole wasn’t supposed to be on the schedule the night he was shot. He was called in to work after another delivery driver couldn’t make it to work.

It seemed like such a horrific night was fate.

Fate

“Even though the situation was bad, the things I have learned through this have made me such a better person,” ” Poole said. “I am a much more compassionate person. I understand everyone has their own battles and are just hanging on sometimes.”

Poole went through several surgeries. At one point, he said he feared his leg would need to be amputated.

“I was terrified that I would wake up from surgery and my leg would be gone,” he said.

Poole was shot in the left leg in his upper thigh and his femur was shattered. The doctors told him it would probably take up to a year for him to start walking again and that he would always need assistance from either a cane or a walker.

He spent 13 days in the hospital and even had emergency surgery after finding out that the bullet had grazed an artery in his leg. He received 13 vials of blood, and the doctors had to cut his thigh open to find out where he was bleeding and stop it.

“I thought I was going to die many times,” Poole said.

Aftermath

“When I saw my family and actually told them the story, I broke down for the first time,” Poole said. “It hit me that these men tried to kill me. I could have died.”

Poole said he battled with anxiety and depression from the incident and instead of relying on drugs and alcohol to cope, he began to hit the gym.

“I just used that energy to be in the best shape as possible and become the best version of myself,” Poole said.

Poole, now 24, works as a UPS delivery driver. He is married and just welcomed twins.

“I started my family because I realized how short life is,” Poole said. “If you want something, it’s best to get it done. A lot of people feel like they have a lot of time, but you never know.”

Poole said he went from feeling indestructible to understanding we are all one step away from catastrophe.

“My family is my biggest accomplishment in life,” Poole said. “I just want to provide the best life possible for my sons and teach them that nothing in life is given and to work hard.”