You close your eyes and all you see is a gun pointing at you."
Phyllis McNutt, stands in her home in Red Bank on Tuesday after talking about being shot at by Julia Shields as Shields drove around Chattanooga on Dec. 26 while wearing body armor and shooting at cars. McNutt says she still has difficulty sleeping at night since the shooting, which totaled her car. The ensuing police chase of Shields ended with her surrender and arrest with no injuries.After the woman drove through Hixson in body armor shooting at people while they sat in their cars, after she led police on a long, looping chase and after she waved the handgun at passersby, she pulled her car right up to a police cruiser -- her driver's side door to his -- and pointed the weapon at him.
Officer Rick Engle was blocked inside his vehicle, windows down. Gun drawn, he ordered the woman, identified by police as Julia Shields, to drop it.
She did. The standoff lasted only seconds.
"She was perilously close to severe injury or death -- as were my officers," Lt. Craig Joel said. "But ultimately, through their calm and training, and through her compliance, she lived."
No one is sure why Shields, 45, allegedly started shooting at random people Friday afternoon. Neighbors say she was pleasant and seemed normal. Old friends from high school say she was shy, sometimes picked on for being different, but generally friendly.
"She was really well-spoken," said next-door neighbor Julie Taylor. "She never gave me the first clue that anything was the matter or she was off her rocker."
But the woman who encountered Phyllis McNutt at an intersection on Cloverdale Drive on Friday afternoon was far from friendly.
McNutt was driving her 84-year-old mother, Betty Cresswell, home from the bank when she spotted a car speeding down the nearest crossroad toward them. The car was approaching a stop sign, but McNutt didn't think the driver would stop, so she stopped.
To her surprise, the driver did stop the car, but she was blocking part of McNutt's lane. McNutt motioned for her to go ahead. The car didn't move. McNutt waved again.
"And as I did, my mother hollered, 'Oh, my word, Phyl, she's got a gun,'" McNutt said.
McNutt heard a boom. She shoved her mom down, away from the windows, and hit the gas. She looked back once and saw the woman driving down a hill behind them.
"I thought, oh, she's coming to finish us off," McNutt said.
She turned on Norcross Road and then whipped into a stranger's driveway. Her car was steaming and there was no sign of the attacker. McNutt called 911. When police arrived, they found a bullet hole in McNutt's car. The bullet had traveled through the radiator, air conditioning pump, timing belt and firewall before coming to rest -- all squished up -- under the hood.
"I was terrified," McNutt said.
During those minutes, police received several more calls about a woman driving around pointing a gun at people. The driver eventually parked in the lot of Stuart Heights Baptist Church, where she fired a second time -- this time at a man in a vehicle, police said. The bullet was stopped by an amp box he had behind his seat.
When police caught up, the woman led them in a looping chase that eventually ended up back at the intersection of Koblan and Cloverdale, where she started, just a few doors down from Shields' home at 1504 Cloverdale Drive.
This corner in the Cloverdale neighborhood is where Chattanooga police stopped and arrested Julia Shields after her shooting spree Friday afternoon. 
Julia Shields is accused of driving around Chattanooga and shooting at people. She was arrested after leading police on a car chase, police say.That's when she put the gun down and police were able to take her into custody. Joel said her decision to drop the gun saved her life.
"The compliance is key," he said. "That's the difference between this and other cases. If she hadn't complied, this would be a very different story."
The incident took place in the context of a national debate over use of force after several incidents where white officers killed unarmed black men and a 12-year-old boy.
Some community members have suggested that the only reason the shooter survived her encounter with Chattanooga police unscathed is because she is white.
"There is a double standard if you think there isn't, you are kidding yourself," Anthony Hoh wrote on the Times Free Press Facebook page. "A kid playing with a toy gun is killed; she is shooting at people and taken alive."
"If she was black she'd be a dead woman right now," commented Jonathan Insley.
But not everyone agreed.
"We should be praising the fact that she didn't get shot," wrote Isaac Pacheco. "I don't understand why people are upset that she was not shot."
Joel said race had nothing to do with the officer's decision not to shoot.
"At the end of the day, it wasn't about race, creed or gender," Joel said. "We don't focus on the race, creed or any other factor, we focus on the gun. If the officer felt his life was in danger, he absolutely would have fired. It was through his experience and his restraint that he didn't fire. And that restraint and that experience is what separates us from everyone else."
Shields is in jail charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder, seven counts of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, felony evading arrest and felony reckless endangerment. She'll have a preliminary hearing in Hamilton County General Sessions Court on Jan. 5.
Police searched her home Monday night, hearing that her rampage may have started there and that family members could have been hurt, but they found no signs of trouble.
Joel said police haven't established a motive for the attacks, but expect one to emerge as the woman defends herself in court.
McNutt said she's glad Shields is in jail. McNutt hasn't been sleeping well since she and her mom were shot at.
"You close your eyes and all you see is a gun pointing at you," McNutt said. "I watch people now. I watch everyone around me."
Contact staff writer Shelly Bradbury at 423-757-6525 or sbradbury@timesfreepress.com with tips or story ideas.