Anderson Davis, the 17-month-old struck by shrapnel during Saturday’s mass shooting between Midland and Odessa, Texas, is expected to survive. A GoFundMe page set up on behalf of the family has raised more than $150,000 in 21 hours to help her parents pay her medical bills.
According to Anderson’s mother, Kelby Davis, she has a “hole through her bottom lip and tongue and her front teeth were knocked out.” She also has shrapnel in chest, “which thank God is superficial.”
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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,” Anderson’s mother wrote. “Pray that whatever is causing them to do this will be defeated by God and they will stop shooting.”
Here’s the GoFundMe page for 17-month-old Anderson Davis, shot in the face in today’s mass shooting in Texas. If you can afford to, please donate. If not, then please consider boosting this signal and sharing wide. https://t.co/KvX9uu41Oj
— Brooklyn Hoosier (@brooklynhoosie3) September 1, 2019
Kelby and Garret Davis told NBC News they are looking forward to seeing Anderson at home with her twin brother.
“We praise God for walking beside us during this time and our prayers go out to all of the families that are walking this same walk,” the Davis family said. “We hurt so badly for the families whose loved ones didn’t survive this tragedy.
Haylee Wilkerson, the family friend who started the GoFundMe page, asked people to “help me by raising money for this sweet sweet baby girl who is so little and doesn’t realize what is happening. They will have a lot of expensive they are going to have to pay for.”
In less than 24 hours, more than 3,000 people have answered Wilkerson’s call, donating more than $150,000 of the $200,000 goal.
Junior Bejarano, 20, who works at the Twin Peaks restaurant in Odessa, told The New York Times he saw Anderson sitting in a car seat, with her face, shirt and lap covered in blood. One of his co-workers checked on Anderson until paramedics arrived.
“She was conscious, but she was just covered in blood,” Beyenaro said of the scene. “It was horrible to see something like that.”
The chaotic sequence of events started at 3:17 p.m. local time, when the suspect was pulled over in a traffic stop between Midland and Odessa, police said. The gunman shot the officer who stopped him, then continued on his way to Odessa, firing randomly at other vehicles along the way. The suspect abandoned his vehicle and stole a U.S. Postal Service van and continued to a movie theater, where he was killed in a shootout with police.
The death toll rose to seven Sunday morning, NBC News reports. Police said the victims range in age from 15 to 57. Although police did not identify the victims, school officials confirmed an Odessa High School was among the deceased.
Officials told NBC News the suspect carried an “AR-style” rifle.
During a press conference Sunday morning, Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke said they would not name the suspect at first to avoid giving him “any notoriety.” However, sources told media outlets the suspect was Seth Ator, 36, who was recently fired from his job.
This was just the latest mass shooting in Texas. On Aug. 3, 22 people were killed by a gunman at a Walmart in El Paso.
“I’m tired of the dying of the people of the state of Texas,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday. “Too many Texans are in mourning, too many Texans have lost their lives. The status quo in Texas is unacceptable and action is needed.”
Photo credit: Cengiz Yar/Getty Images
