A 14-year-old girl was arrested Tuesday in the shooting of a 13-year-old boy in Southeast D.C., police said. The victim's mother spoke to News4 about the ordeal from her son's hospital room.
"It's been stressful, very stressful," she said. "I'm thankful that he's OK."
Officers responded just before 4 p.m. Monday to the 2300 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE for a report of a shooting. They found a 13-year-old suffering from gunshot wounds.
The victim's mother, who did not want to provide her name or her son's, said her son was waiting to take a bus home from middle school when he was shot.
"It's crazy. I just wouldn't expect that, sending your child to school and you get that phone call that he's been shot," she said. "He's not into the streets; he's just a good boy. So it really shook the whole family to know that something like that happened to him."
The 14-year-old girl and a man walked up to the boy, and the man shot him, police said.
Police arrested the girl but are still looking for the alleged gunman.
The 14-year-old suspect, who was not named, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, D.C. police said.
The victim was shot twice and suffered injuries that were not life-threatening, police said.
"They need to be off the streets, because if it's not my son, it's someone else's," the boy's mother said. She said she did not know any potential motive for the shooting.
"Nothing like this has ever happened in our family, so he's just recovering from surgery, and we're taking it one day at a time," the boy's mother said.
Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to contact police. A reward of up to $10,000 is available.
CORRECTION (Feb. 9, 2022, 3:53 p.m.): An earlier version of this story said the 14-year-old girl was the alleged shooter. Police say they are looking for a gunman who was with the girl.