6-year-old girl shot walking into her DC apartment building speaks with FOX 5
WASHINGTON - Since July, four little girls have become shooting victims in Washington, D.C., all of them innocent bystanders to violence in their neighborhoods.
More than three weeks ago, 6-year-old Daziyah Ingram was shot in the ankle as she was walking into to her apartment building on Langston Place in Southeast. FOX 5 sat down with Daziyah and her mother, Tarsha Ingram, to talk about how they're doing and how they're trying to help other D.C. families impacted by violence.
"She's walking better, the boot is off her foot," said Ingram.
She said her daughter's foot has been healing well, but the pain of what happened persists.
"She'll go into a mode where she don't want to talk and she just wants to be by herself," said Ingram. "And I give her the space, but I'm always telling her that mommy is here."
She says Daziyah doesn't like to speak about the Sept. 6 shooting.
"We were coming home from the grocery store," recalled Ingram. "We were getting out the car taking our groceries into the house and we just heard gunshots."
She says she grabbed her daughter
"As I was walking up the steps with her going into my apartment, I felt, like, water running down my legs," she said. "And I stopped to look and I was like, 'Oh, one of us is bleeding, one of us got shot.' That's when she screamed in my ear. She was like, 'Mommy!' and I was like, 'Oh, my baby. My baby's shot.'"
Police released surveillance video of a person of interest in a car, but there have been no arrests yet.
"There has to be really a lot of changes for our babies to feel safer out here," said Ingram.
Makiyah Wilson, 10, was killed in Northeast In July. A 6-year-old was shot and injured in Southeast in August, and on Friday, a bullet grazed a 9-year-old girl's head in Northeast.
Ingram says she wants to create a support network for the growing number of families who have gone through what her's has. She's in the process of starting a nonprofit that her daughter helped name, The Daziyah Unicorn Survivor Foundation because Daziyah loves unicorns. She's partnering with an organization called Parent Watch that helps families impacted by violence.
"She has her arranged and has met with an attorney and an accountant, so it will be serious oversight and legitimacy to ensure that it's done correctly," said Janise Patterson, founder of Parent Watch.
Both women realize that families are left struggling long after the police and crime tape are gone. The biggest struggle for Ingram now is trying to get out of the neighborhood where her daughter was shot.
"We haven't moved yet, so that's the big process," said Ingram. "To get her in a safer environment and a safer place for my Daziyah."
To get involved in the foundation, contact Ingram and Patterson at parentwatch2010@gmail.com.