A Moment of Silence for a Fallen Star and True Warrior! as 49ers’ Ricky Pearsall Passes Away, Leaving Fans and Teammates in Devastation.

By Eric Branch, San Francisco Chronicle The Tribune Content Agency

Updated November 21, 2024 7:17 PM

Ricky Pearsall’s gunshot wound has healed, but his scars remain.

Nearly three months later, the San Francisco 49ers rookie wide receiver often reflexively looks over his shoulder when he’s walking alone. Other unsettling moments trigger flashbacks to the afternoon of Aug. 31.

 

“I was just talking to one of my teammates earlier about it,” Pearsall said to the Chronicle on Wednesday. “Certain things pop up and it’s kind of like, ‘Whoa, that kind of reminds me of that situation.’ It puts goosebumps on my arms.”

 

Pearsall isn’t done dealing with trauma after he was shot in the chest in a robbery attempt in Union Square. He’s spoken with multiple therapists provided by the team, and he doesn’t know when his unseen damage will heal.

 

However, the most intense emotions Pearsall has experienced since the shooting haven’t involved anxiety or fear. Those feelings persist, but they so often get subsumed by his sense of peace and calm. It’s a tranquility that he oddly first felt when he didn’t know whether he was about to die after a bullet tore through the right side of his chest and exited through his back, leaving him bleeding profusely near the corner of Geary Street and Grant Avenue.

 

Pearsall spoke Wednesday in detail for the first time about the aftermath of his shooting and the serenity he says he has felt from a higher power. After he made his NFL debut in a loss to the Chiefs on Oct. 20, Pearsall mentioned receiving signs that he viewed as the “presence of God,” saying that was a “whole separate story.”

 

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This week, Pearsall often smiled and shook his head in wonder as he unspooled that story.

 

Pearsall, who is Catholic, was lying in the street when Sgt. Joelle Harrell, a devout Catholic, began praying for him after she pressed his T-shirt against the wound in his chest and used her baseball cap to create pressure on his exit wound in his back. The bullet had struck a few inches below Pearsall’s tattoo of praying hands.

 

Pearsall recalls “freaking out” and frantically asking Harrell if he was going to survive. She offered reassurance and said she was going to pray for him, which Pearsall didn’t initially welcome.

 

“I was just like, ‘Am I going to live?’ – I wasn’t worried about prayer at that moment,” Pearsall said. “But she started and something just took over me and I felt relaxed. I’m bleeding everywhere. I mean, this s- just happened. But we were just hugging, she was praying and I felt such a calmness that things were going to be OK, even though I didn’t know in the moment.

 

“We were still waiting on the ambulance and the other officer that was there was saying that we needed to hurry up. The spot where the bullet wound was – they were worried about it. It was ‘hurry up and get him to the hospital.’ But I just felt so relaxed even though I didn’t know the outcome.”

 

Pearsall remained calm by silently praying in the ambulance en route to San Francisco General Hospital.

 

“I just kept saying, ‘Please, Lord, it’s not my time,'” Pearsall said. “It is all in his timing, but I just felt in that moment that he had me.”

 

At the hospital, Pearsall was swiftly taken to the ICU. His room number, 14, matched his jersey number. Pearsall was confused: Did they know he played for the 49ers? He quickly discovered it was a coincidence, although he viewed it as a sign that he was being watched over.

 

“I was like, ‘Are you doing this because I’m No. 14? Can you say that again?'” Pearsall said. “‘Room No. 14, that’s crazy. That means more than you think.'”

 

The bullet went through Pearsall’s chest at an angle and exited the side of his back. He survived, was discharged the next morning and made his NFL debut 50 days later because it didn’t strike vital organs or nerves and passed through an area between two ribs. A doctor traced the bullet’s journey on a whiteboard for Pearsall and his family and admitted she couldn’t explain its improbable course.

 

“She said, ‘I’ve never seen a bullet path like this. I’m not a religious person, but something like this would make me religious,'” Pearsall said. “For me, that was a very impactful moment.”

 

Pearsall’s experience has deepened his faith, which has helped him cope with trauma. He also credits support he has received from the 49ers and his teammates, and returning to the field has also been therapeutic.

 

Not that the first four games of his NFL career have been easy. Pearsall has 11 catches for 132 yards and scored his first touchdown on a 46-yard catch in a 23-20 win at Tampa Bay on Nov. 10. However, he didn’t have a reception while playing 37 snaps in a 20-17 loss to the Seahawks on Sunday that dropped the 49ers to 5-5 on the season.

 

Pearsall hasn’t lost his competitive fire, but he acknowledged nearly losing his life has provided perspective on losses and professional failure.

 

“I care about this game so much to the point where sometimes it does drive me crazy when I’m not playing up to my potential or we’re losing some games that we should be winning,” Pearsall said. “But when I put it into perspective of what I’ve been through and the understanding that there’s a lot more life outside of the game, it kind of keeps me calm in a way and it gets me back to being myself. And I think I’m the best version of myself when I keep that perspective.”

 

Pearsall has felt like the best version of himself more often recently due to the worst moment of his life. But that doesn’t mean the shooting didn’t create wounds that still require healing.

 

Still, even in those scary moments when he’s walking by himself, Pearsall’s fears can be quieted because he has faith, a belief strengthened by a prayer, a bullet path and even a room number that have told him that he’s not alone.