'You know I don't got no legs': Double amputee shot while panhandling in Detroit

DETROIT (FOX 2) - A 64-year-old double amputee was shot Sunday afternoon while trying to scrape a few dollars together to pay the bills. But who did it - and why - are a mystery.

Clayton Willis, 64, was panhandling on Detroit's west side when a masked man ambushed and shot him while he was in his wheelchair.

"Why would you mess with a handicapped person? You know I don't got no legs (that’s a coward) some might call it a P**** A**," Willis said. "I don't bother know anybody I'm just out here trying to keep my bills paid."

His sliver is along 8 Mile near the Southfield Freeway and he wasn't hurting anyone. He says it's been this way for him since 2000 when he lost his legs from frostbite.

Clayton Willis, 64, was ambushed and shot at several times while pandhandling on 8 Mile in Detroit

And so it was on Sunday when he was trying to catch some evening drivers.

"All the sudden I had my head turn heard a shot fell out the chair back of my head was bleeding," Willis said.

One of those bullets grazed the back of his head and the other two missed him. Meanwhile, the gunman headed west and disappeared across the highway.

"I hope and pray that this never happens to me again," Willis said.

As it turns out, four panhandlers have been shot at or threatened with violence in the area since May. Detroit police say it's some kind of turf war but that the shooter may not even be a panhandler.

"The type of person that would do that is a monstrous type of individual, in my opinion ," Detroit Police Commander Vernal Newson said.

Someone who targets a double amputee becomes a very important target for Detroit Police.

"I hope the police find them before we do," Willis said.

Willis said, despite what happened, he's not afraid.

"The Lord is watching me, I pray every time I come out here," he said.