7-year-old shot 6 times

December 13, 2007 6:08 PM

7-year-old shot 6 times in an attempt to save her mother's life. After three 911 calls, the police arrived. She 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. Details of the crime inside.

The details:
Her mother's former boyfriend was the shooter. Alexis and her mother went to spend the night at his house, due to their house not having heat, then the ex-boyfriend pulled a gun and demanded to be driven to Six Mile. "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. Mom took too long, the ex-boyfriend shot at the mom. The 7-year-old jumped over the seat between her mother and the gunman and begged him not to shoot her mother. But the shooter "without hesitation" pumped six shots into the child.

Contact info for donations to the family.

posted by k8t (28 comments total)

Rotten dot metafilter.
posted by localroger at 6:16 PM on December 13, 2007

Haven't red the links , my bet : meth.
posted by elpapacito at 6:18 PM on December 13, 2007

People are bad, and do bad things. A tide of brutality and violence sloshes back and forth around the world every goddamn minute.

Nothing is ever going to change that. We're killers. Turning away is a hard stance to defend, but if we could somehow make ourselves aware of all the human beings being tortured and killed and suffering at the hands of other people, right this minute as I type this, we'd go bugfuck insane. There's nothing to be done outside of the way we live our own lives, but admitting that seems a lot like just giving up.

It's a beautiful day today.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:27 PM on December 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

The summary above is totally wrong, except for the ex-boyfriend being the shooter.

Mother and daughter were going to stay at Aisha Ford's house, not the ex-boyfriends. Aisha Ford is the one who was driving the car, and the one who was "taking too long" at the gas station. The mother and daughter never intended to go anywhere with the ex; he just pulled the gun on mother, daughter, and Aisha Ford when Aisha arrived to take them to her house.

(I got all of that from the linked article, by the way)
posted by stefanie at 6:30 PM on December 13, 2007

Thanks for including the link for donations.
posted by dogrose at 6:32 PM on December 13, 2007

An important correction in the details - The mother asked a female friend to let them spend the night at her house, since they had no heat, not the ex boyfriend. When the female friend got there to pick Alexis and her mother up, she found them in the process of being accosted by the ex boyfriend. He kidnapped all of them and the shooting happened when the friend tried to stall at a gas station so she could call for help.

I'm just trying to head off the "she brought it on herself" comments.
posted by figment of my conation at 6:32 PM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the clarifications. I read it in translation first and the mistakes got stuck in my head. Oops. News reading for language practice = good, posting it on MetaFilter = bad.
posted by k8t at 6:34 PM on December 13, 2007

Detroit is, indeed, for lovers.
posted by Pecinpah at 6:37 PM on December 13, 2007

Rallying for donations is not what the blue is for.

Very sad story though.
posted by hermitosis at 6:42 PM on December 13, 2007

stavrosthewonderchicken writes "People are bad, and do bad things."

We get indoctrinated by this idea, but I think it's exactly the opposite. People are generally good, and it's only through abuse or desperation that they learn to do bad things. If people were truly the monsters we're made out to be, civilization never would've come to exist and we wouldn't be having this conversation.
posted by mullingitover at 6:45 PM on December 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

That, and good news doesn't sell newspapers.
posted by not_on_display at 6:50 PM on December 13, 2007

If people were truly the monsters we're made out to be, civilization never would've come to exist and we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Civilization is nothing if not the efficient organization of brutality.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 6:52 PM on December 13, 2007

We get indoctrinated by this idea, but I think it's exactly the opposite.

It would have been more accurate to say 'some people' or 'many people', that's true. Whether we can say 'most people' or not is a very hard question to answer, and yeah, a lot depends upon the answer one chooses. I meant to imply 'some' for what it's worth
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:52 PM on December 13, 2007

Detroit's a violent shithole?

You don't say!
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:53 PM on December 13, 2007

Ford said she dialed 911 on her cell phone as she walked into the station. "The first operator clicked off 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."
posted by monju_bosatsu at 6:53 PM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

mr_crash_davis, please take this opportunity to explain how your comment doesn't make you an ignorant, heartless,

Ah hell. I'm too upset by this story to have a serious conversation about Detroit and stupid ass people who talk shit about it because they watched 8 Mile.
posted by PhatLobley at 6:58 PM on December 13, 2007

I noticed that, monju_bosatsu - the really odd thing was that the gas station operator was able to get a policeman to come in less than a minute. What the heck is wrong with the 911 system there?
posted by wanderingmind at 6:59 PM on December 13, 2007

I grew up in Michigan and my parents live at 10 Mile. Detroit depresses me.
posted by k8t at 7:00 PM on December 13, 2007

I really hope a dispatcher or two get fired over this.
posted by brevator at 7:03 PM on December 13, 2007

Detroit depresses me too. But it's a city that can be saved. And writing it and its seven year old girls off because it's a "violent shithole" just contributes to the problem we're so anxious to blame its savage residents for.

On preview, brevator, I agree.
posted by PhatLobley at 7:05 PM on December 13, 2007

cases like this are why i support the death penalty.
posted by bruce at 7:09 PM on December 13, 2007

Detroit's a violent shithole?

You don't say!

Well, at least in Detroit 12-year-old girls aren't forced to marry their 50-year-old uncles. :0
posted by crowman at 7:09 PM on December 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

Fires first shot in impending gun debate.
posted by tellurian at 7:12 PM on December 13, 2007

Terrible story, terrible post.
posted by LarryC at 7:19 PM on December 13, 2007

If people were truly the monsters we're made out to be, civilization never would've come to exist

The basic nature of humans are that of survival. Man gives up his visceral urges of immediate satisfaction through the social contract in an attempt to live in peace and extend his life. Once he feels that the social contract no longer protects him all bets are off and he reverts back to survival mode - whatever that means to him.

Civilization is a paper-thin human construct. This has always been my argument on why I am very high on social programs to aid the weak, poor, dumb, lazy and unlucky. If these people are not included within the social fabric they will become enemies of it and cost us more than money - they will cost us our soul.
posted by any major dude at 7:26 PM on December 13, 2007

I most whole-heartedly hope that whatever dispatcher told her that "they didn't have a unit to send" gets their jaded ass fired. Seriously. Is it so hard to hold them on the line till they *get* a unit to send? And how hard did the dispatcher really look when a unit managed to show up less than a minute after the 3rd call was made? WTBHF.

And while we're at it, somebody tell me why I shouldn't write off Detroit as the last place I'd ever want to live?
posted by Parannoyed at 7:27 PM on December 13, 2007

apparently, the mother believes that god took a special interest in her at her moment of need and threw her little girl into the path of bullets, saving her fat ass as her child becomes "an angel from heaven".
posted by kitchenrat at 7:27 PM on December 13, 2007

"What the heck is wrong with the 911 system there?"

I live in the city. My mom called once cause our next door neighbor was being beaten up in the driveway and they laughed. Here's a good article from the Metro Times about the ambulance system.
posted by ofthestrait at 7:27 PM on December 13, 2007