TAMPA, Fla. (WFTS) — October marks Domestic Violence Awareness Month. It's a topic that's often not discussed because it's hard for many people to open up about, but Tracy Otto is sharing her tough story in the hope that someone currently in a bad situation will hear it.
"I can't sit here and justify not telling the story of what happened to me and my fiance, because, you know, it could help and save lives all over the world," she said.
Otto acknowledges it's hard to bring that day back up: October 24, 2019.
"Ricky and I were on our second date, and it was a day like any other, you know, we were just kind of hanging out. And I just gotten back from Chicago, visiting my brother, and we had our date, and everything was great, and we went to sleep that night, and we were woken up by a very bright light and someone screaming in our face to get out of bed," she recalled.
The person yelling at them was her ex-boyfriend.
"He had looked in my window and saw us asleep, and went to Walmart and purchased a high powered pellet gun as well as a knife and, I believe, handcuffs. Came back, broke in, woke us up, and told us that he was going to kill us, and that if he didn't kill himself, he was going to call the police. And proceeded to just tear everything apart. Ultimately, he ended up stabbing me in the back of the neck, which is what paralyzed me from the chest down," she said. "He also fired the high powered pellet gun through my left eye, so I'm half blind. I'm missing my left eye, and he did a bunch of other really horrible things that I'm not going to describe right now, but yeah, that's the gist of what happened."
Otto smiles brightly, although she's taking it one day at a time now.
"There isn't a day where I don't think about what happened, or, you know, where it doesn't cross my mind. But to get through it, I just really... that's such a hard question to answer, because when you're not really given a choice. You have to keep going. You know, I'm in this body, and this is my life now," she said.
And her life has gone on since the brutal attack. There's a lot to get to. But we'll start with how Otto used her tragedy to become a Paralympian, competing at the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
"We were driving down, I-4, and I look at Ricky, and I'm like, 'Why don't we shoot archery?' And he goes, 'Girl, your hands don't work. How are you gonna shoot archery?' And I'm like, I'm gonna figure it out. I don't know. We're gonna figure it out," she recalled.
That was back in 2021. She found a place in Tampa to learn archery, and she kept up with it.
"It just kind of lit a fire in me that I felt like had been extinguished due to what had happened," she said.
And during that trip to Paris, Ricky, the man who was beside her when her ex-boyfriend attacked, proposed at the Eiffel Tower. And she shared that she's pregnant.
"The biggest thing is you just, you can't give up. You can't stop you have to keep going, and you have to, you know, fulfill that, that passion and just to take over the world and do what you want to do and live a life that's productive and healthy and happy," she said.
And that's what gives her the strength to talk about that attack five years ago.
"I love that we have a Domestic Violence Awareness Month to shine a light on what's going on. I mean, it shouldn't even be a thing, to be honest with you. We shouldn't have to have it, but we do, and we're working through it. And like I said, I just hope that I can be the best advocate possible and to bring light to the situation and help as many people as I can only," she said.
Otto also thanks the State Attorney's Office for the services they provided along the way.
The State Attorney's Office has a team of Victim Advocates. They accompany survivors to court. They let you know about court dates, sit with you through those hearings, there from day one.
Additional resources include professional counseling, clothing, and a place to live, which are provided through a partnership with The Spring.
If you or someone you know is going through something similar, we want you to know there's help out there.
You can call 1-800-500-1119 for help. We also have more resources here.
A South Tampa man turned to Susan Solves It after he said ADT told him he had to keep paying for a security system at his Hurricane Helene-damaged home, even though the system was so new that he never had a day of service.
