5-year-old will lose eye after she’s hit by stray bullet at dance class, GA mom says
.jpeg "Ne’Vaeh Brown, 5, will have surgery to remove her eye after she was shot by a stray bullet during dance class in Athens, Georgia, on April 26, her mother said.")
A 5-year-old girl will have surgery to remove her eye after a shooting sent a stray bullet through a window at her dance class, hitting her in the face, her mother said.
Ne’vaeh Brown was one of two children shot when gunfire erupted near a dance studio in Athens, Georgia, on April 26, according to Athens-Clarke County police and news outlets. A 14-year-old girl was also hit in the arm.
Both were taken to a hospital for treatment, police said.
“It was traumatic,” Ne’Vaeh’s mom, Brittanie Wright, told WXIA in the wake of the shooting. “To see the injury, the blood, to see everything I didn’t know what to do or what to think. I didn’t know where the bullet was at, or if it was still in her eye.”
In an update, Wright said doctors weren’t able to save her daughter’s eye. Now she’s focused solely on her child’s recovery as they navigate her new reality.
Ne’Vaeh “will be having another surgery May 11th to get her eye removed bc there is no vision in it at all an she will get a prosthetic within 2 months after surgery,” she wrote in a Facebook post May 2. “Thanks for all the support an prayers as it is still needed.”
A witness told officers he heard three gunshots and saw two cars drive off, the Athens Banner-Herald reported, citing a police report.
Officers arrived and saw a woman cradling a child who had “blood on her face and (was) holding a wad of papers over her left eye, which appeared a ‘grievous injury,’” according to the newspaper. Authorities said another child suffered a gunshot to her arm and was “bleeding excessively,” the Banner-Herald reported.
Officers arrested 38-year-old Rasheed Scott of Atlanta one day after the shooting, according to a police news release. He was charged with aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.
The condition of the 14-year-old wasn’t known as of May 3.
Police said the shooting remains under investigation.
Athens is about 70 miles east of downtown Atlanta.
This story was originally published May 3, 2023 at 1:50 PM with the headline "5-year-old will lose eye after she’s hit by stray bullet at dance class, GA mom says."