Local

‘My kid is impacted for life’: Mom speaks to Channel 9 after son hit by stray bullet

CHARLOTTE — A mother and her 7-year-old son were in their own home last month when out of nowhere, a bullet was shot through their window, hitting the child in the face.

That mom has lived at the same apartment on Hilo Drive for years and said she has never experienced violence before that shooting two weeks ago.

She told Channel 9 anchor Allison Latos that her boy is now afraid to play outside.

(To protect their identities, Channel 9 is not showing their faces or using their names.)

“For a minute, I just thought it was a car,” she said.

When Channel 9 spoke with the family on Wednesday, the boy was still wearing two bandages over the bullet wounds on his face. He told Allison about that afternoon, when he was doing homework and heard gunshots for the first time.

His mother knew what the sound was and urged him to get away from the glass patio door.

“In the midst of him running to get to me, I saw the glass break and I could feel it come past me,” she said.

The bullet hit her son, piercing his cheek, before hitting the wall.

“He kept asking, ‘Why would they do that? Why did that happen? Don’t they know kids live here?’” she told Allison.

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She said she is extremely frustrated and believes someone in the neighborhood knows who was involved.

Their silence isn’t helping police solve this case, but she hopes the images of her innocent boy will serve as a wake-up call to whoever pulled the trigger.

“If you have conflict, handle it, but don’t handle it in a way where so many people have to be impacted in such a senseless, dangerous and harmful way,” she said. “Your conflict might be over now, but my kid is impacted for life. He’s going to have scars. He doesn’t even feel safe in his own home.”

The child did not need surgery or stitches -- doctors said he was extremely lucky.

Police have not made any arrests in the case.