DeKalb County

Mother of 3 hit by random gunfire in her own home

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A DeKalb County mother is recovering after what police are calling a random shooting.

Oumou Keita told Channel 2's Sophia Choi that she is too scared to stay in her own home after a bullet shattered a window and hit her in the back as she was putting her children to bed.

“It’s like six to seven of them. Pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow,” Keita said.

The mother of three said she couldn’t get away from the window fast enough after she heard the gunfire around 11:30 Tuesday night outside her unit at the Lakes at Indian Creek Apartments in Clarkston.

A bullet hit her back. Keita said the force was so strong, her legs gave out.

“I fell to the ground. I told my husband they shot me,” Keita told Choi.

Her husband then helped her to a back bedroom, where she took cover on the floor as her children hid in a closet until police arrived.

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Choi saw a glass company employee replacing the shattered window when she arrived at the home on Wednesday.

Keita said that will help keep the cold out, but not the violence.

She wants more security. Neighbors do, as well, saying what happened to Keita is just the latest in a string of crimes at the complex, where a lot of children live and play.

“It’s so crazy that you have to live this way, worrying about people shooting, and you can’t sit by your window, you can’t put a chair by the window or anything,” neighbor Kim Tyler said.

Choi spoke to the complex management, who said they plan to hire security after the first of the year.

Keita said she may not stick around for that, saying she now plans to move from her home of three years.

She said her children are afraid to live there, and she is, too.

“I’m scared, because I don’t want it to happen again,” Keita told Choi.

Police have no suspects in this case, but there are some clues.

Neighbors gave Choi several bullet casings they found, saying police were out looking for them.

Choi carefully put the casings into a baggie to hand them over to investigators so they can possibly lift fingerprints off the shells.