MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The family of 3-year-old Ayanna Morris is counting their blessings after police say she was shot inside her Nutbush home on New Year’s Eve.
Her uncle, Jamayl Morris, said Ayanna was playing on a tablet when celebratory gunfire flew into her home, striking her in the neck.
“That’s my angel, that’s my pride and joy,” Morris said. “It just makes me feel good to know she’s doing okay.”
Morris says Ayanna has not had any surgeries yet, and he’s thankful she’s playful and alert despite the bullet still in her body.
“It got lodged in the right side of her ear, and they can’t remove it right now because of the swelling,” he said. “She got internal bleeding on her brain. She ain’t even had a good chance at life yet.”
While Ayanna is on the mend at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and he helps care for her siblings, he says her mother’s sense of security is shaken and she’s afraid to return to her home on Vernon Avenue.
As the family awaits justice, Morris is hoping what happened to Ayanna is enough to make people put their gun down.
“Some people need to learn how to use a gun instead of toting a gun and shooting people for no reason,” he said. “Innocent children, that’s somebody’s family.”