GASTONIA, N.C. — A 13-year-old girl was shot in the abdomen by her 16-year-old boyfriend, Elkin Jimenez, on Sunday afternoon on Bryant Street at Sunshine Avenue in Gastonia, police said on Monday morning.
The shooting happened around 4:45 p.m., and the girl ran to her neighbors for help.
Channel 9’s Ken Lemon spoke with someone who witnessed the aftermath.
Abi Diaz was changing his tire when the teen girl ran to him.
“She say, ‘Help me! Help me! He shot me! He shot me!’” the witness said Monday.
Her boyfriend was there and tried to convince Diaz that nothing that had happened was that serious.
“He say, ‘No, no, no. Take it easy. Take it easy. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing,’” Diaz said.
The neighbor said they were both so young that he thought they were playing around until the girl bent over at a car and he saw blood.
He said she pleaded with him.
“She say, ‘I can’t die. I can’t die. Help me, please,’” Diaz said.
The round that shot into her stomach and back may have changed her life forever.
“They are determining whether she will be paralyzed,” said prosecutor Kristen Northup.
Diaz said Jimenez told him they both left Honduras and recently arrived in Gastonia.
He said that matches what the girlfriend told him.
“She say, ‘I don’t have family, no daddy, no mom,’” Diaz said.
She is at a hospital but her condition has not been released.
Jimenez, was taken into custody and has been charged with attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, and possession of a handgun by a minor. He was denied bond under Iryna’s Law and will be tried as an adult.
Prosecutors may take the attempted murder case to Superior Court.
VIDEO: Investigation underway after young girl was shot in Gastonia
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