Woman Badly Hurt in I-20 Rock-Throwing Incident

Police: Teens threw rocks, railroad spikes at a dozen vehicles

An Arizona woman is demanding the maximum sentence allowable for two Weatherford teens suspected of throwing rocks and railroad spikes onto a North Texas interstate and hitting her in the face.

"I don't care what anybody thinks about that. You come and sit in my shoes and if you have any compassion for those kids, good for you. I don't," Dyan J-Heim said.

Heim, 59, spoke with NBC 5 on Wednesday, just over a week after the incident which knocked out some of her front teeth and tore off a portion of her top lip.

Heim and her husband were traveling west on Interstate 20 the morning of July 15 when, between the Bankhead Drive and Santa Fe Drive exits, a golf ball-sized rocked came crashing through the passenger side of the windshield and hit her.

Their vehicle was one of at least 12 that were struck by stones and railroad spikes, according to police.

"We could have had somebody that could have died as a result of this," said Sgt. John Rudolph, of the Weatherford Police Department.

Photographs of the damage show holes in some of the windshields and side windows of several vehicles as a result of the stones, in addition to a railroad spike impaled into the side-view mirror of a tractor trailer.

The two suspects were throwing the rocks and spikes from a position along the north side of the westbound lanes of I-20, according to police.

The boys told police they were aiming for the trailers being pulled behind big rigs, Rudolph said.

Officers located the teens at their homes not far from the scene of the crime, police said, after several of the victims called 911 and described who they believed to be responsible.

"They didn't apologize, not while I was there," Rudolph told NBC 5 of the teens. "I talked to some of the officers that took the reports, and there was no indication that the juveniles were remorseful whatsoever."

"You know, they teared up a little bit. I think they were more concerned because they were in trouble for what they did, not remorseful for what they did," Rudolph added.

The two teens have each been charged with felony criminal mischief and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to police.

For her part, Heim said she was just thankful she turned her head shortly before she was struck, otherwise she may have been hit in the eye.

"I just thank the Lord that I had an angel on my shoulder that day," Heim said by phone from her Arizona home.

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