A teenage girl will spend a week in a South Jersey hospital after a stray bullet burst through her bedroom wall and hit her as she slept.
Tiya Hudson, 13, was sleeping inside her home along the unit block of Hathaway Drive in Sicklerville, N.J. when she was hit in the buttocks by the bullet around 12:45 a.m. Monday, Winslow Township Police said.
"When I came out [of my room], my sister is crawling to me saying she got shot and that she was going to die," the girl's 15-year-old sister Toni Hudson told NBC10.com. "I said 'You're not going to die.'"
The girls' mother, Betty Hudson, said Tiya was alert as paramedics took her to Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J. There she underwent surgery and will remain in a hospital bed for a week.
Back at the home, a bloody mattress and sheets remains in the girl's room sitting under several trophies and school award certificates.
"We're not at the wrong place at the wrong time, we're home in the bed and something like that happens? That's crazy," the mother said.
Officers found 11 shell casings at the nearby intersection of Hathaway Drive and Hawthorne Lane, officials said. They believe the gunshots were fired west -- peppering the teen's home and at least one other with bullets. But the motive for the shooting is unknown.
"I just heard a whole bunch of guys say 'Run!' and then Tiya screaming," Toni Hudson said.
A 56-year-old woman, from a neighboring home, was also hit by broken glass after bullets sailed through her house, police said. She refused medical treatment.
Neighbor Sheri Durricks heard what she first thought was firecrackers, but quickly realized the sound was coming from the barrel of a gun.
"I just heard two shots and I said 'Oh, it's just firecrackers' and then I heard seven more shots that seemed to be coming closer and closer to my windows. I just ran out of the room," she said.
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Durricks said she hid behind a couch for safety. She wasn't hurt.
Detectives from the Camden County Prosecutor's Office continue to investigate. They don't believe the bullets were from celebratory gunfire.
