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Girl hit by stray bullet returns home from hospital

Posted at 6:46 PM, Apr 04, 2012
and last updated 2012-04-05 11:47:21-04

An eight-year-old girl who was shot by a stray bullet in Hampton returned home from the hospital on Wednesday.

“It’s a miracle she’s still alive,” says Jeffery stokes, Lashae Toliver’s father. “She means the world to me,”

He is thankful that his baby girl is finally home.

“She been happy and smiling and joking and playing,” he says.

Her beautiful smile was nearly wiped away two weeks back when a stray bullet ripped through their home and struck Lashae in her mouth. The bullet came out through her neck.

Now only scars remain from the bullet’s path.

“She thinks she’s ugly. She don’t want to go to school because she thinks the kids are gonna tease her because she’s missing her tooth, two of her teeth in the front and she has the scar over her lip. I said ‘You beautiful. You don’t even have to worry about that.’ I said ‘That’ll go away too.'”

While Lashae’s happy to be home, it doesn’t make getting over the shooting any easier.

“The first night she came home, it was a little traumatic because she didn’t want to sleep by the wall,” says Stokes. “She was waking up several times in the middle of the middle of the night crying.”

Stokes says he knows that if the bullet had taken a different path, his little sunshine would have set forever.

“I thank God that he spared my little girl,” says Stokes.

“The person that did this to my daughter, if you’re watching this, all I can say is that I hope you find it in yourself to get closer to God cause you need him,” says Stokes.

As Lashae recovers at home, police are still looking for the individual responsible.  If you know anything, call the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.