DeKalb County

Sleeping 10-year-old girl hit by stray bullet during shootout

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A mother is pleading for violence to stop after a stray bullet hit her 10-year-old daughter in the arm while she was sleeping.

The girl's home is on Hatton Drive in DeKalb County.

Police said they believe gunfire came from two different shooters from two different groups.

The child, identified as Shamaira, was sleeping in a second-floor apartment unit. The blinds on a window in her room were partially up, and a bullet came into room, hitting her in the arm.

“I know it could have been worse. It could have been her head. If she hadn’t slept with her arm, her arm above her, it would have been her head,” said Numanikie Harris, the child’s mother.

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Neighbors told Channel 2 Action News they heard dozens of shots go off in the Oak Forest Apartments on Wednesday night.

Harris said her family was sound asleep when her boyfriend woke her.

“He said, 'Get down. They are shooting.' I did not hear no shots or nothing, and he said, 'Get down. They are shooting,'” Harris said.

They then went to check on the children in the next room.

“My oldest, she was sitting up, saying her arm was hurting, and my boyfriend turned on the light and she was bleeding,” Harris said.

Shamaira is recovering at a local hospital. Harris said she could be home as soon as Friday.

“The bullet is still in her arm. She just ready to go back to school, and miss her sisters, miss her bed,” Harris said.

Dekalb police said the shots came during a shootout outside. Police collected shell casings from two different guns.

They are looking to see if surveillance cameras throughout the property captured any images of the suspects.

“This is a home. We trying to make this our home. Just stop the violence,” Harris said.