Zack Bannister, 8, suffered a gunshot wound to the head when he was out with his family looking at Christmas lights in Lawton, Oklahoma. Cops arrested a 30-year-old man. (GoFundMe)
An 8-year-old boy suffered a gunshot wound to the head while he was out looking at Christmas lights with his mother who was also delivering food for DoorDash.
It happened in Lawton, Oklahoma, which is about 90 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. Nichole Groshong said in a GoFundMe post that she, her sons Zack and Waylon and her mother-in-law were in the 900 block of SW 35th Street around 8 p.m. on Dec. 10 when she stopped and put the car in reverse to show them some more lights.
Then shots rang out.
“I drove away as fast as I could,” Groshong wrote. “My kids said they were okay, but Waylon then informed me that Zack was bleeding and he didn’t know from where so I drove as fast as I could to the hospital while my oldest kept his little brother awake all the way to the hospital and they said that was the best thing he could have done.”
Police later arrested 30-year-old Jullian Phillips for the shooting. Phillips has no ties to the victim’s family and it appears to be a case of mistaken identity, although Phillips is not cooperating with police, Sgt. Christopher Blessing told Law&Crime.
Prosecutors on Monday charged Phillips with shooting with intent to kill. Phillips remains in the Comanche County Jail on a $500,000 bond. He has a court date scheduled for Jan. 22.
Groshong said her son suffered a skull fracture and a blood clot in the brain. He’s having trouble processing things and can’t sit up on his own, but can talk some and is progressing overall.
“Other than all that he is doing so amazing and I am so proud of him,” she wrote in an update on Sunday.
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