KCTV 5Mother says angel watching after baby struck by bullet

Mother says angel watching after baby struck by bullet

A 1-year-old girl was struck by a bullet inside her Kansas City apartment.

Brooklynn Hughes was grazed by the bullet, police say. The baby was inside an apartment at Park Meadow apartments when a bullet fired from another apartment across the hall hit her about 8 a.m. Thursday.

Latisha Dean was playing with her daughter on the floor inside their apartment near 87th Street and Manchester Avenue.

"We were watching TV, and something just told me to lay down. And as soon as we laid down, that's when the bullet came through this house," she said Friday.

The bullet went through two walls and grazed Brooklynn's forehead. But her mother initially feared the injury was much worse.

"I looked at my baby. She ran to me and she just had blood gushing out everywhere, it was all over her face," she said. "In my mind, I am thinking, 'I know she's not shot because she's conscious.'"

A municipal ambulance rushed Brooklynn and her mother to the hospital. Four hours later, she was home. But doctors say if the bullet had struck an inch in either direction, it would have been fatal.

Police took four people in the neighboring apartment for questioning, including how the gun came to be fired. There's no word on whether charges have been filed.

For Brooklynn's mother, there is no doubt about what happened. She knows she could easily be at a funeral home now planning her daughter's funeral.

"To me, that was her angels pushing her down because they knew what was about to happen and God knew it wasn't her time to go," the grateful mother said.

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