KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Nearly two months ago, Kansas City police say a second grader was shot in her head at a playground by another child. Amazingly, the young victim survived the terrifying ordeal and that’s why her dad calls her “a miracle.”
Monday night, the little girl is still recovering at Children’s Mercy, and police are still investigating the shooting that landed the eight-year-old in the hospital.
FOX 4’s Robert Townsend spoke to the young survivor’s dad about his daughter Tishawn’s progress and the investigation.
Shawn Nelson said two months ago when paramedics rushed his little girl to Children’s Mercy Hospital after she she had been shot in the head, many feared the second grader wouldn’t survive.
“A lot of people don’t make it from that type of injury,” said Tishawn’s dad Shawn.
“Prayer works!”
Shawn is convinced God heard he and his wife’s prayers. He said doctors removed a bullet from Tishawn’s forehead and now, this thankful dad called Tishawn’s tremendous turnaround “a miracle.”
“She’s talking. She’s trying to walk again. She’s trying to get back to herself,” he said. “Big turnaround. A lot of people didn’t expect it, but she made it.
Shawn said in late June, Tishawn was outside their home, near 23rd and Wheeling, having fun at this nearby playground, when a single bullet rang out.
“My nephews came running in telling me my daughter’s been shot and I went out there and I seen the blood coming out of her head and I lost it.”
Police said the person who shot Tishawn in her forehead is just 7-years-old.
“What happened to her shouldn’t have never happened,” Shawn said.
Shawn told FOX 4 the boy lives behind their home with his parents.
“I’m trying to get over it, but I still feel that rage in me. Why? Because my daughter got shot for nothing, nothing at all. She’d done nothing to no one. I’ve done nothing to no one,” he said. “I don’t even know who he is at all. Never seen him.”
Meanwhile, as Tishawn continues to improve, and police continue investigating the shooting, Tishawn’s dad vows he’ll fight for his daughter.
“A lot of therapy. A lot of it,” Shawn said, adding “I know a kid did it, so they should go after the parents.”
“All I want is justice. That’s what I want.”
Right now, police still aren’t saying how the 7-year-old boy got his hands on a gun. Investigators however do confirm they recovered a gun from that scene.
