Ontario child wounded by stray bullet at Veterans Park

Two men face a myriad of charges stemming from an alleged gun battle in an Ontario park filled with children. One of the stray bullets struck 12-year-old Jojo Garcia.

"I thought I lost him," mother Carla Garcia said. "The way his eyes rolled back and he started fading. That was it, I thought that was it."

Garcia rushed her boy to the a local hospital for emergency surgery. The medical staff made it clear to Garcia that her son may not survive. 

"He told me, 'I'm going to be honest, we need a miracle as of right now. You need to pray,'" Garcia recalled. 

The miracle that the doctors and Garcia prayed for appeared to happen on Monday morning after her son began to breathe on his own for the first time in more than a week.

"I think that's what kept my son here in this world and with us," Garcia said. "The love that he has for his dad. He had seen his dad devasted and crying. I don't think he wanted to go, seeing he was suffering."

The shooting happened at roughly 4:15 p.m. on Friday, April 4, at Veterans Park. Police said Damian Marquis Berry, 25, and Anthony Dionte Erwing, 35, started shooting at each other. Garcia and her husband had just picked up their son from the park when the gunfire started. 

Both of the men were arrested shortly after the firefight. While the men face a variety of charges, including attempted murder, Garcia's focused on her son's long road to recovery. 

"I don't have time to be hating or to have hate towards them," Garcia said.

While her son has started breathing on his own, the 12-year-old cannot speak and likely faces a year before he fully recovers. 

"The bullet entered the back of the head and it shattered a little of the skull and into the brain," Garcia said. "The bullet is still there."

Jojo is the youngest of eight in a family that has struggled to find housing in recent months. His school started a GoFundMe page to help the family. Ontario city leaders have also started tracking down permanent housing for the family. 

"We've been so grateful with all the paryers," Garcia said.