17-Month-Old Girl Injured in Texas Shootings Has Teeth Knocked Out, Shrapnel in Chest
A 17-month-old girl was among those injured on Saturday in a mass shooting in Texas that killed seven people.
Anderson Davis is recovering after she was hit by a bullet when a gunman took off on a bullet-spraying rampage in a hijacked mail truck after he was pulled over by police in Odessa just after 3 p.m.
During a press conference on Sunday, Governor Greg Abbott read a text message from the child’s mother. “Thank you all for praying. This is all of our worst nightmare, but thank God she’s alive and relatively well,” Abbott read. “Toddlers are funny because they can get shot but still want to run around and play. Her mouth is pretty bad but will heal and can be fixed. Thankfully it doesn’t seem like her jaw was hit, just lip, teeth and tongue. She is having surgery tomorrow to remove the shrapnel from her chest.”
Police have yet to identify the victims, but a GoFundMe page arranged by a family friend previously confirmed the infant was injured in the incident.
In a post on the fundraising page, the girl’s mother gave an update on Anderson’s health.
“Anderson is alive and that is a prayer answered bigger than I’ve ever had to pray,” she said. “Her vitals are good … Anderson is 17 months old, has shrapnel in her right chest, which thank God is superficial.”
Anderson’s mother confirmed that her daughter’s front teeth were knocked out and has a hole through her bottom lip and tongue.
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“She is alive. When others today are not alive. I ask you to continue praying for our hearts as we experience this, pray for complete healing of Anderson, pray for every other family in our same situation, or worse, today and pray for the shooters,” the mother wrote. “Pray that whatever is causing them to do this will be defeated by God and they will stop shooting.”
Anderson was airlifted to University Medical Center in Lubbock, where she remains in satisfactory condition, hospital officials told CNN.
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Local restaurant worker Junior Bejarano told the New York Times he saw a baby girl shortly after she was injured, and that she was sitting in a car seat, soaked in blood.
“She was conscious, but she was just covered in blood,” he said. “It was horrible to see something like that.”
The Odessa Police Department said the rampage began at 3:25 p.m. after police initiated a traffic stop on I-20 between Midland and Odessa.
The driver opened fire on a state trooper before speeding away, and continued to shoot at civilians before ditching his car and hijacking a mail carrier truck.
The suspect, a white male in his 30s, fired shots into shopping plazas and busy intersections, injuring at least 21 people and killing seven. He was eventually killed in a shootout with police at the Cinergy movie theater in Odessa, bringing an end to the state’s second mass shooting in a month.
Three law enforcement officials were among those injured, Odessa Police Department Chief Michael Gerke said. All three were in stable condition as of Saturday night, according to CBS News.
No additional victims have been identified, though the Ector County Independent School District in Odessa confirmed that a student was one of the seven people killed.
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“We are heartbroken and outraged by the violence that struck our community and our school district today,” a statement posted on Facebook read. “We are learning that we have lost friends, family members, and one of our students. Our lives have been changed forever.”
