Kerry Lathan survived 25 years of prison only to find himself in the middle of an tragedy with a sadly ironic twist. He was one of the men shot alongside Nipsey Hussle when the hip-hop hero was murdered on March 31.

Lathan had a press conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday, speaking on the situation and giving a clearer picture of what happened. According to Lathan, there have been many falsehoods reported in the media, including that he and Nipsey were friends. They had just met that day.

“There’s a little ray of hope, after all the injustice that’s been done,” Lathan said, sitting next to his attorney. “I’m a little shook up about almost everything around me. After 25 years in prison, everything is new… if it wasn’t for the voice of the community Maxine Waters, T.I., Rick Ross, these people... the community around me as a whole. Those prayers and the community together as a voice. I would not be sitting here today. I’d like to thank all these people.”

Lathan says on the day Nipsey was shot, he was in the shopping center that housed the Marathon Clothing Store trying to get a white tee shirt. While there, he saw Hussle and the two spoke, taking a picture together. It was then that the gunman, who has been identified by police as Eric Holder, showed up and fired upon them.

“I didn’t do anything. I’m a victim,” Lathan declared. “[Nipsey’s] a celebrity. I took a picture with a celebrity. I met him once, took a selfie. They said that’s the in thing, ‘Take a selfie.’”

Lathan’s lawyer describes the meeting as “happenstance.”

“He had no idea Nipsey would be at the store that day,” she affirmed. “It was by chance that Nipsey was there that day.”

Literally adding insult to injury, Lathan, who is a convicted felon, was arrested in the aftermath of the shooting. According to police, it was a violation of Lathan’s parole to associate with Nipsey, who had a past as a gang member and had a criminal record.

After protests and an outpouring support on his behalf by the fans and celebrities such as Rick Ross and T.I., California Governor Gavin Newsome intervened and the charges against Lathan were dropped. He is currently residing in a halfway house.

Lathan still has a very difficult road ahead of him. His recovery from a gunshot wound will be arduous, to say the least. He is now finds himself bound to a wheelchair.

“I have a bullet in my back,” he revealed. “A fragment of it broke off in my spine. They say ‘if we take it out, it’s a possibility you could be paralyzed.’”

The fragment has severed some of his nerve endings already, causing his left side to be numb.

Psychologically, he’s also fractured from being shot and seeing Nipsey laying lifelessly next to him.

“I can’t even put that into words,” he said about witnessing Nipsey get murdered. “That devastated m