‘Teen Mom’: Maci Bookout Describes Lingering Effects of Gas Station Shooting

During the March 23 episode of Teen Mom OG, Maci Bookout found herself in the midst of a terrifying situation. Back in October 2020, Bookout witnessed a deadly shooting at a gas station in Tennessee. Naturally, the ordeal left her shaken, as the reality star admitted that she feared for her life. On Tuesday night’s episode, Bookout opened up about how the situation affected her, telling both her husband, Taylor McKinney, and her friends that she has been experiencing bouts of PTSD.

At the start of the episode, which took place weeks after the shooting incident, Bookout sat down with McKinney to discuss how she’s been feeling after the scary situation took place. She told her husband that she’s been taking things “day to day,” and that her anxiety about the ordeal comes to her in waves. She explained that certain things, such as loud noises like a balloon popping, have become triggering to her. Bookout also noted that she has been experiencing an onslaught of dreams tied back to the incident, including ones in which she sees guns (she later shared that she had a nightmare in which Bentley was at the scene with her, which left her extremely anxiety-ridden).

While she explained that she’s slowly coming to terms with what happened, McKinney still wanted to do something special for his wife so that she could take her mind off of it for a short time. He ended up putting together a girls’ night for Bookout so that she could simply hang out with her friends and have dinner. Of course, the group did discuss the gas station shooting as they inquired about how Bookout was feeling. She told her friends that she would be going to therapy weekly to work through those lingering issues. In the end, she said that the “silver lining” to the situation is that she was able to make it out of the shooting alive, as she truly feared as though she was going to die that day.

The shooting in question took place in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Oct. 30, 2020. Bookout was on her way to pick up her son Bentley when she stopped at the gas station. WRCBtv.com reported that officers initially responded to a car crash that happened near the gas station. The person involved in the crash, 27-year-old Brandon Keith Davis, ran away when the officers arrived. The authorities ended up chasing Davis to the gas station and he then reportedly fired three shots at the officers. The police then returned fire, fatally shooting Davis. No one else at the scene was hurt. Disclosure: PopCulture is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.