TV EXCLUSIVE: 12-Year-Old Boy Shot In Lawncrest Speaks Out
By Diana Rocco
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia police are searching for the shooter who opened fire while a 12-year-old boy was on his way home from a fast food restaurant with his mother.
"I was going to die," Briaheem Thomas said.
That's what was flashing through 12-year-old Briaheem Thomas's mind as he was caught in a spray of bullets walking home from Burger King with his mom Friday night.
"I could see smoke and fire coming out of the gun," Briaheem said. "I tried to hop and then I just fell on the ground."
"We started running and the next thing I know I saw my son on the ground and he said he was shot," his mother Crystal Thomas said.
Briaheem had been hit in the leg with one of at least eight bullets that came from a semi-automatic handgun on the 500 block of Van Kirk Street just after 9 p.m. Friday (See Previous Story). Police say the intended target was a 21-year-old man just a few feet away who was shot in the chest. Police say at least one shooter was seen running from the scene.
"It hit me from where my hip is and my thigh and then it went in and came out," Briaheem said.
Briaheem's mom ran to his side and was talking him through the pain waiting for help to arrive.
"It's going to be okay, don't cry, you're strong, it's going to be okay. I'm going to make sure nothing happens to you," he said.
"God was watching out for him that night. That was God. All Him, nobody else," his mother said.
The seventh grader was treated for a deep graze wound to his thigh and then released. Still too close a call, both he and his mother have words for his shooter.
"Don't shoot at all. People have a hard time having kids and you're just taking their life, and that's not cool," Braiheem said.
"I just pray for them and hope they have a conscience," his mother said.
The 21-year-old shooting victim remains hospitalized in stable condition.
Briaheem will be off crutches and back to school in a few days.
Police are still looking for the shooter.
