A 5-year-old girl was struck in the leg by a bullet, which became lodged in her sippy cup, during a frightening rush-hour road rage incident in North Carolina.
Charles Edward Stevenson Jr., 20, is accused of firing a shot at the girl’s father, who was driving a Ford F150 on US Route 1 near Raleigh shortly before 8 p.m. Monday. However, the bullet hit young Ema’s right leg, according to local network WRAL.
The slug was later found in the girl’s sippy cup.
“Your stomach just drops all the way down,” Aubree Allison, the girl’s aunt, told WRAL of the heart-stopping encounter.
“What an image that is. And it’s nothing that you hope happens in your own life,” she added in regards to the bullet found in the cup.
Ema’s father reported to the police that Stevenson was driving unpredictably on the busy road, even throwing something out of his window at another vehicle, which inadvertently struck the F150.
When Ema’s dad, whose name was not released, rolled down his window to yell at Stevenson, the young man fired a single bullet at the pick-up truck, which ended up striking the innocent girl.
She was rushed to a local hospital and underwent emergency surgery.
Ema’s family has since revealed that she has undergone several successful surgeries but is now missing a chunk of her leg, WRAL reported.
Her rehabilitation time is expected to take between four and six months but the brave little girl is expected to make a full recovery, The News & Observer reported.
Stevenson faces charges including assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and discharging a firearm into occupied property.
