Martin Olive, owner of Vape Room in San Francisco, was shot seven times last month — and, miraculously, survived.
Whatever Higher Power is to be clearly wants San Francisco smokeshop owner Martin Olive to stick around. After surviving a near-fatal brain aneurysm years ago, it would appear Olive was in the clear regarding such close dances with death. However, on January 17th, it was clear he had at least another two-step with mortality left after being shot seven times outside his smokeshop, Vape Room, in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood.
“I thought it was like a TikTok prank or a joke, like a water gun. In my head, the logic didn’t register,” Olive tells ABC7’s Luz Pena. “It didn’t make any sense about what was happening. I put my hands up when I saw that it was a real thing happening and I kind of dodged, and he was aiming for my head, and then two shots – bang, bang — and those are the ones that hit my cheeks.”
By the time the shooter left the scene, Olive was struck seven times by gunfire. A contextual callback to the aforementioned Higher Power, a nurse just so happened to be nearby and witnessed the shooting, quickly running to Olive’s aid and applying aid to thwart the bleeding.
“She took off her shirt and was doing compressions and telling me that I was going to be okay. I remember my hands spasming,” said Olive. “She was the first angel to come and bring some sort of normalcy and bring me back out of this out-of-body, spiritual experience I was having where I was no longer tendered to my physical form.”
A police standoff between the suspected gunman and San Francisco police ensued later that day, and the alleged gunman was killed; an investigation that led police into his apartment, which was located above the smoke shop, revealed the man had several firearms and ones linked to Olive’s shooting.
Olive, somehow still conscious, pleaded with paramedics and medical staff at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center to not let him die. Olive noted that “they saved [his’ life multiple times,” and there were many moments when he “was fading out.”
Olive’s road to recovery is long; he’s not expected to return back to work for some time. A party will be held at the smokehsop Saturday, and Olive himself has said he’s focusing his efforts on healing, physically and mentally.
In lieu of working, as well as a means to help cover growing medical expenses, a GoFundMe campaign was set up by best friend Jason Grace.
“We’re raising funds to support Martin’s recovery and the hurdles he’ll face ahead, from medical bills to rebuilding his life,” reads a description of the GoFundMe. “ Any amount, no matter how small, will make a meaningful difference for him.
As of publishing, the crowdsourcing campaign has raised over $120,000 — $10,000 shy of its campaign goal.
“I’m grateful to still be here and I want to do some good work, and I want to keep helping people,” Olive tells Pena in closing. “To keep a perspective. That this life is valuable, and I have been grateful enough to be given another chance and to find joy and to find ways to be content with things, and proud of my life and happy for my life.”
For those with the means to donate toward Olive’s healing and recovery efforts, click here.
