Bleeding and in shock, Dudley managed to call Crow and tell him he had been shot. The two men have been friends for a decade, first bonding over motorcycling before eventually becoming business partners at North Star Taxi.
"He's a larger-than-life kind of guy, just a big personality," Crow told CNN. "He's boisterous, but he's still like a very gentle soul, very kind, compassionate, loves to laugh. He wants to enjoy life, he's tenacious, charismatic."
Michael Dudley had just finished an overnight bartending shift and was asleep when he woke up to an urgent phone call telling him his father had been shot. He said his father suffered severe injuries, was intubated, and had to be airlifted to a hospital.
Dudley has raised four children alone since being widowed years ago, including three sons and a daughter. His son said the family's focus now is entirely on his recovery.
North Star Taxi driver Terry Dudley, described by friends and family as a gentle, boisterous soul with a long road to recovery ahead. | Source: Facebook/terry.dudley
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Other Customers Describe a Scramble for Cover
Dudley wasn't the only person in the parking lot fighting to survive those minutes. One witness, sitting in a car with his two younger brothers while waiting for his sister to return with their food, heard the first shots and looked up to see a man walking between vehicles with a pistol.
"We were just sitting there, I was playing on my phone when I heard a couple pops and I look up and I see a gentleman walking from a white vehicle to another vehicle with a pistol in his hand," he told CNN affiliate KMVT.
He told his brothers to duck and threw himself across the front seat for cover, keeping track of the gunman's location as best he could. His sister had just ordered food and stepped into the restroom when the shooting started.
As other customers crowded in beside her to try to barricade the door, she waited until it seemed safe, then ran out through the drive-thru line, directly into the shooter's path.
