Woman blinded by pellet gun

PORTLAND – A woman blinded by a lead pellet has asked the public for help finding the person who fired the shot.

Erin Miner, 23, was leaving a party at a friend’s home early in the morning on March 20 when something hit her left eye, causing intense pain and bleeding.

After two surgeries failed to save her eye, Miner wants people with air rifles and pellet guns to know how dangerous they can be.

She also wants to know who fired a shot that she said “plays pinball inside your eye.”

With only one eye, she has little depth perception and often feels dizzy because of a disrupted sense of balance. She is learning to walk without stumbling, but she still finds herself bumping into people in grocery store aisles.

Miner said she will have to learn to drive again, and she won’t go hiking in the Columbia River Gorge until she can negotiate uneven terrain.

“I was always a little vain about my blue eyes,” Miner said, adding that she’ll give up contact lenses to wear glasses to protect her remaining eye.