Family friends, relatives say prospects good for girl’s recovery from gunshot to neck
Police said a 15-year-old boy was showing a gun to a 13-year-old girl. While she was handling the weapon
By BRENDAN KIRBY
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MOBILE, Alabama (WALA) — Prospects are good that an 11-year-old girl who suffered a gunshot wound will recover, according to friends and relatives.
According to Mobile police, the child suffered the gunshot just before 6 p.m. Monday in the 1500 block of Lemon Street in the Maysville community. A 15-year-old boy was showing a gun to a 13-year-old girl. While she was handling the weapon, police said, it went off and hit the victim in the neck, police said.
An ambulance rushed the victim, identified by friends and relatives as Ariana Sykes, to the hospital with what police described as life-threatening injuries.
“She’s doing a little better,” said the child’s grandmother, Brenda Sykes.
Sykes got choked up recalling Monday’s events. She lives just down the road and said she heard the commotion. But she said she had no idea the sirens had anything to do with Ariana.
“Didn’t have no idea ’til somebody came down here banging on the door, that Ariana had been hurt,” she said.
Police said they eventually will turn the case over to the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office to determine if criminal charges are appropriate. It was clear Tuesday that investigators were still gathering information. Officers knocked on the door at the girl’s house but got no answer.
Family friend Jackie McGrew told FOX10 News that she did not witness the shooting heard that kids were playing the gun near Ariana.
“What I heard was that whoever had the gun shot the girl in the back, through the neck. … It was an accident,” she said.
McGrew said she spent time yesterday at the hospital with the girl’s family.
“We’re just hoping that she pulls through, like, with a complete – well, you know, coming back together in her body,” she said.
A neighbor who asked not to be identified described police and rescue workers rushing to the scene. She said it is commonplace for kids to be on the street at night without adult supervision.
“It’s scary and it’s crazy, because they got – that girl got shot like that,” she said. “I hope and I pray she’s alright.”
McGrew said it was a difficult night at the hospital.
“It was bad at the hospital last night. … I mean, it ain’t over, you know?” she said. “We’re still worrying.”
Brenda Sykes said she is praying for her granddaughter, as well.
“She is a real good little girl,” she said. “She wants to be a traveling nurse when she when she grows up.”
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