A shooting shouldn’t be a situation that a young boy has to mentally and emotionally deal with. But that’s the situation 6-year-old Jaden Anglin finds himself in.
“I’m mad,” Jaden told NBC10.
When asked why he was mad, the boy could only say “because.” He then looked on in silence.
It was Friday shortly before 8 p.m. when Jaden was standing next to a stop sign outside his home on 24th and Norris streets. He was one of several children playing in the area, which is located near a school. Suddenly a gunman opened fire and a bullet went through the boy’s left shoulder. Jaden crawled on his hands and knees to his home for safety as the shooter fled.
“When they were shooting, I saw blood on the pole and then I ran in the house,” Jaden said.
The boy was taken to the hospital where he was treated and eventually released. On Wednesday he showed the bandages that covered his bullet wound as his grandmother Bernice Beattie held him tight. Beattie now refers to her grandson as “miracle baby.”
“We could have just lost him,” she said. “The bullet could have just went to his heart and he would have been gone.”
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A few days after the shooting, police arrested 22-year-old Abdul Holmes in connection to the incident. Investigators don’t believe Jaden was Holmes’ intended target. Yet regardless of what the intentions were, the impact the shooting had on an innocent boy remains.
Jaden talked about the treats he received in the hospital and was remarkably composed as he described he reflected on the shooting. Perhaps he’s still too young to fully comprehend what happened to him. Or perhaps he’s merely coping with a situation that a 6-year-old child shouldn’t have to cope with in the first place.
