The resident of a Halifax home where an 11-year-old girl was struck by a bullet Tuesday night, never thought something like that could happen.
Jessica Oakley was inside the home when the shots were fired at it.
She said her partner was in their driveway with his daughter and his daughter’s best friend — getting ready to go get ice cream — when a car drove by and someone opened fire.
“They weren’t even out the house for 30 seconds, and the shots started going off,” she said.
Oakley said as soon as her partner saw the gun, he yelled at the girls to duck behind the car.
“That car door is the only thing that saved him, and the car is the only thing that saved the girls.”
The moment Oakley heard the shots, she gathered her two sons to sit on the floor. Then, she looked outside and noticed the 11-year-old friend had been shot.
“I ran down the stairs and said, ‘Come on baby girl, we gotta get in the house.’ She said ‘I can’t move.’”
Oakley picked her up and took her inside and started applying pressure to the wound on her lower body while on the phone with 911.
No suspect description
Halifax Regional Police released more details about the shooting on Wednesday morning.
They said shots were reported at 9:19 p.m. in the 3000-block of Federal Avenue, and that officers found the young girl in a home where she was treated by EHS before being transported to hospital.
The residence and an unoccupied parked vehicle were also struck, the release read.
“There is no suspect information at this time and we do not have any information to suggest the youth was targeted,” said Const. John MacLeod, in the release.
Oakley noted the suspects were wearing masks at the time of the shooting. She believes it was a case of mistaken identity.
‘She’s one strong little girl’
Meanwhile, Oakley said the young girl had surgery Tuesday night and is recovering.
“She’s one strong little girl. She walked out of my house and got on that stretcher and she laid on her belly and off she went,” she said.
“I feel so bad… I’m just glad she’s OK.”
One of the bullets went through Oakley’s living room window. If she had been sitting on her couch, it would have went right over her head, she said.
So far, no arrests have been made and there are no suspects in the case, but Const. MacLeod said police are reaching out to the public.
“We know there are people out there with this incident, and other recent incidences as well, that have information that can help forward this, no matter how small it is or how insignificant they think it may be,” MacLeod said.
At this time, police don’t believe this incident is connected to any of the other shootings that have occurred in recent months.
This is the second shooting in Halifax involving child in the past six months.
Last December, eight-year-old Lee-Marion Cain was killed in a brazen shooting in Dartmouth. He was in a vehicle with a 26-year-old man when shots were fired at their vehicle near Windmill Road and Waddell Avenue.
There have been no arrests made in that case to date.
— With files from Amber Fryday.