5-year-old girl shot playing in bounce house now paralyzed

SOUTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — For the first time, Channel 2 Action News is hearing from the mother of the 5-year old girl, shot during a kid's birthday party in South Fulton County.

Family members said the shooting happened on Buckhurst Drive last month. The children were playing in a bounce house when gunshots rang out.

A 3-year-old boy was shot and survived, but mother Andreauna Douglas said her 5-year-old daughter, Abriya, is still in a hospital, paralyzed.

For Douglas, the anger comes and goes, but the heartache is constant.

"It's senseless and it should've never happened," she said.

“Her injury was at t-11, which controls from below the belly button down to her feet,” Douglas said. “It hit her spleen, her diaphragm and her lower back."

Fulton County police call it a revenge shooting.

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A short time after the shooting, a tip led US Marshals, along with special operations units, to Demetrius Gordon. They believe he was one of the shooters.

"You bring this type of violence around your home by the people you associate with,” Chief Gary Stiles said. “That's the real tragedy here. The children are blameless, but they're always caught in the middle."

Monday, Channel 2's Audrey Washington called Fulton County police.

Police tell Washington they believe the shooting was gang-related. The three other shooters are still on the loose.

Now, Douglas is speaking out, begging for anyone who was there to come forward with information.

"And y’all ran, so y’all know who was involved,” Douglas said.

Police believe the shooters were after the adult who was shot.

If you'd like to help, the family has set up a GoFundMe.

Cox Media Group