‘God has kept me protected’: 17-year-old shot by road rage driver speaks from hospital

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. — A teenage girl who was shot in the face during a road rage incident on I-20 is warning people not to engage with aggressive drivers.

Channel 2′s Tom Jones was at Grady Memorial Hospital, where 17-year-old Ashlyn Crouch just got out of the intensive care unit and is now in a regular room.

The shooter, 30-year-old Brittney Griffith, had her three small children in the car with her when police say she fired a shot into a car that cut her off, hitting Couch.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Couch said she knows that if the bullet that hit her in the head was a few inches over, she may not have survived.

“I’m doing good and I’m still alive,” Crouch said. “I thank everyone out there who prayed for me. God has kept me protected.”

Ashlyn Crouch’s mother, Dianna, told Jones that the bullet hit her daughter behind the ear and exited near her eye. Thankfully, her eyesight was not permanently damaged.

“It was the corner, like the T-bone,” Dianna Crouch said. “It missed everything that it needed to miss. God is good.”

TRENDING STORIES:

• Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade could have direct impact on Georgia heartbeat law
• 2 Georgia men facing charges for illegally killing nearly 11-foot gator
• Man found guilty of shooting victim over game of UNO at Cobb County party

Dianna Crouch said Ashlyn told her the road rage incident started when the driver of the car she was in cut off Griffith. She said Griffith gave them the middle finger, and they gave one back.

Other teens in the car were able to snap a photo of Griffith pointing a gun out the window.

Police said that as Griffith got to the Chapel Hill Road exit, she fired a shot, hitting Ashlyn Crouch. She then drove to get her nails done.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

Ashlyn Crouch said the incident has taught her a valuable lesson.

“You never know what someone is thinking or if they in they’re right mind,” Ashlyn Crouch said. “Stay alert and keep gestures to yourself.”

Griffth is facing four counts of aggravated assault, four counts of first-degree cruelty to children and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

Ashlyn Crouch said that she hopes Griffith finds God.

Woman shot teen in the face during road rage incident, then went to get nails done, judge says Police said the victim was riding in the front passenger seat of a car on I-20 when a woman in a black sedan pulled up alongside the vehicle and fired a shot.

©2022 Cox Media Group