Mother of boy who accidentally shot self at friend's St. Paul home wants answers
The mother of Rasheek Long Lynch, the 12-year-old boy who police said accidently shot himself in the head while visiting a friend's house in St. Paul, Minnesota, wants answers.
Police said the shooting happened on Aug. 11 at about 1:30 a.m. off Congress Street West and Stryker Avenue, just south of Downtown in the Riverview neighborhood. Rasheek Long Lynch was rushed to Regions Hospital.
"They said my son wasn't going to make it overnight," mother Kierra Lynch said.
When Kierra Lynch got the call, she and her mother were hours away in Lafayette, Indiana.
"He was not home with his dad, he was at a friend's house," she said.
Kierra Lynch said her son is now out of critical condition, with a long road of rehabilitation ahead.
Investigators do not know who the gun belongs to, or how the boy got it.
"The police are trying to tell me that it is an accident and that he shot himself," she said.
Kierra Lynch said she needs to know the answers to those questions, and more.
"My baby has a bullet in the middle of his skull," she said. "I'm not leaving here until I get answers. I have to know. I'm not going to be able to rest tonight until I know, and I just want answers."
Right now, she is focused on her son's recovery.
"They told me his right side was probably going to get problems, he probably wasn't going to be able to move his right side. Thank God, he's been moving his right side," she said. "He has not talked yet, but he has been moving, he's been active."
She hopes her son will regain the life he once had — full of sports, school and just being a kid.
"He just likes to do any normal thing that any other kid does," she said. "He loves to be on his game, he loves to be on his phone, he loves social media."
Until then, she has a message for parents when it comes to guns and young people.
"Monitor your babies. Monitor who they're hanging out with. Keep eyes on them. Be noisy, be overly noisy, pay attention" she said.
Kierra Lynch started an online fundraiser to help while she's in Minnesota during her son's recovery.