The Saddest Hero Story You'll Ever Read
This story is getting linked all over the place, mostly lauding the seven-year-old who saved her mother's life by throwing herself in front of mama's murderous ex-boyfriend's gun as a heroine.
Which I guess she is, but goddamn, this is one appalling story to a mama.
A 7-year-old-girl is being hailed as an "angel from heaven" and a hero for jumping in front of an enraged gunman, who pumped six bullets into the child as she used her body as a shield to save her mother's life.
Alexis Goggins, a first-grader at Campbell Elementary School, is in stable condition at Children's Hospital in Detroit recovering from gunshot wounds to the eye, left temple, chin, cheek, chest and right arm. The girl's mother, Selietha Parker, 30, was shot in the left side of her head and her bicep by a former boyfriend, who police said was trying to kill Parker. . . . Police identified him as Calvin Tillie, 29, a four-time convicted felon whom Parker had dated for six months.
Just, holy fucking crap, you know? Mama and child got shot in their fucking heads by some motherfucking asshole. Thank God they're both alive. Seriously, thank God.
Still, this entire story is so, so depressing.
Parker called (her friend Aisha) Ford and asked if she and Alexis could spend the night at Ford's home.
"She said she had no heat and they were very cold, and I said , sure I'll come and get you," Ford said.
Jesus Christ. Mama with a baby and the fucking heat's been cut off. Or maybe they can't afford to fix the furnace. That shit pisses me off, man. Yeah yeah, the utility folks want their bills paid, but you know, heat is a *necessary service* in Detroit in the winter. I mean, have some fucking humanity.
Ford said she drove her burgundy 1998 Ford Expedition to Parker's home on Dwyer. She said as Parker and Alexis walked up to her vehicle she saw a man on the porch, who she assumed was a furnace repairman. She said Alexis, who walks with a limp, slipped momentarily on the icy sidewalk and as she helped the girl up, she saw the man and recognized him as Tillie. He was holding a gun.
Tillie ordered them into the vehicle, cursed at the women and angrily told Ford to drive him to Six Mile Road, she said.
"He looked like he was enraged and didn't care what he did. I knew if we went to Six Mile, he would kill us," Ford said. Instead, she told him she needed gas and drove to the Fast Stop Gas station in the 5000 block of East Seven Mile Road, a station that requires customers to pay the attendant inside.
"I figured if he got out to pump the gas, I was going to take off," Ford said.
Smart, smart lady. Would that we all had friends like this.
Instead, Tillie gave her $10 and told her put in $5 worth of gas.
Ford said she dialed 911 on her cell phone as she walked into the station.
The first person I hear saying that poor people should be paying their utility bills rather than owning cell phones gets slapped.
"The first operator clicked off
The holy fucking, what did you just say?!???
and I dialed again and told that operator a guy with a gun was holding me hostage with a mother and baby and threatening to kill us. I told her the name of the gas station and then she said they didn't have a unit to send."
Dear God in heaven. Let's assume that the dispatcher isn't just being an asshole here; let's assume that the problem is that the Detroit police force is seriously underfunded and undermanned. Still and all, holy crap, people: let's have some priorities here. How about some federal funding for cops when cities are too poor to fully fund their local police departments? Maybe our elected assholes will get on that now that they're done voting about whether or not they support Christmas.
Ford said she paid for $5 of gas and slowly returned to the vehicle, stalling for time as she handed Tillie the change. She said she kept stopping and starting the pump, hoping the police would show up.
"I told him I needed more gas and took money out of my purse and went back into the station," she said. The attendant, Mohammad Alghazali, 30, said he noticed Ford was crying and she told him what was happening. He called 911 as he heard shots coming from the vehicle.
Third time was the charm, I guess, since the cops will show up here in a little bit. (BTW, I was recently in a really bad accident--not my fault, and I wasn't hurt--and called 911. Five fucking times before I got through. So it's not just Detroit.)
"It was very scary. She (Ford) was scared and screaming when the guy was shooting. I was scared, too. I was on the phone talking to the police when he started shooting," he said
Parker told police that Tillie said Ford was taking too long
She said she pleaded with him but he pointed the gun at her and shot her in the side of the head. She told police she was shot in the arm as she lunged at Tillie.
Brave woman. But I bet almost anyone would lunge at a man with a gun if their child was in the car.
Before Tillie could fire again, Alexis jumped over the seat between her mother and the gunman and begged him not to shoot her mother.
Oh my God. That poor, terrified little girl.
The police report said Tillie "without hesitation" pumped six shots into the child.
As police arrived, they saw Parker, covered in blood, running from the truck, screaming, "He just shot my baby."
Gosh, it's nice that they finally showed up. Isn't it?
The officers said Tillie came out to the vehicle holding a blue steel 9 mm semi automatic and dropped the weapon when ordered to do so. Officers said they found Alexis huddled on the floor under the steering wheel, covered in blood, surrounded by spent cartridge casings, a spent bullet on the floor and teeth on the seat. There were bullet holes in the windshield and blood inside.
Alghazali said a police car on a street nearby arrived in less than a minute after his call.
I'm glad they showed up before he managed to run down the mama and execute her while the child bled to death on the floor of the car.
The little girl underwent six hours of surgery. She still can't speak, and has lost her right eye, though a medical supply company has donated a prosthetic eye for her. She already had epilepsy, which had given her a stroke and some resulting weakness even before the shooting.
Selietha Parker, her 30-year-old mother, stayed by her daughter's bedside until around 10 p.m., when numbness in her own left arm, which still had a bullet lodged in it, forced her back to Detroit Receiving Hospital's emergency room.
If you possibly can, it would be a mitzvah to try to help that little girl and her mother pay their medical bills, get the heat turned back on, and maybe even have some presents under the tree for Christmas. All About Race provides the address (and a phone number). Checks should be made out to the Alexis Goggins Hero Fund and sent to
Campbell Elementary School
c/o the Alexis Goggins Hero Fund
2301 E Alexandrine St
Detroit, MI 48207.
For information, call (313) 494-2052.
Bitch_PhD hopes her own child never, ever has to even think about being that brave.
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Comments
Twelve
Bay City, MI
April 2007
DEC 13, 2007 07:25 PM
thefreak
NEWSWIRE
Gardner, MA
DEC 13, 2007 07:30 PM
emptyharbour
Calgary, AB
November 2005
DEC 13, 2007 07:30 PM
thefreak
NEWSWIRE
Gardner, MA
DEC 13, 2007 07:33 PM
Flux
SUICIDEGIRL
Georgia, USA
DEC 13, 2007 07:36 PM
8Reales
I'm lost
June 2006
DEC 13, 2007 07:39 PM
Varuka_Salt
I'm lost
October 2006
DEC 13, 2007 07:42 PM
thefreak
NEWSWIRE
Gardner, MA
DEC 13, 2007 07:48 PM
Poe
SUICIDEGIRL
Maine, USA
DEC 13, 2007 07:59 PM
Subrosa
San Francisco, CA
July 2004
DEC 13, 2007 08:00 PM
PointBlank
New York, NY
November 2004
DEC 13, 2007 08:04 PM
Chainlink
Key West, FL
August 2005
DEC 13, 2007 08:05 PM
Flux
SUICIDEGIRL
Georgia, USA
DEC 13, 2007 08:06 PM
Varuka_Salt
I'm lost
October 2006
DEC 13, 2007 08:07 PM
8Reales
I'm lost
June 2006
DEC 13, 2007 08:08 PM
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