KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City mother is happy to have her baby girl home. Farida Simmons brought 11-month-old Brooklyn home from the hospital last Friday. She’d been there for 19 days after getting shot in a drive-by shooting on Sept. 30.
“I didn’t have any doubts that she wasn’t going to make it,” Simmons said. “When I first took her to the hospital, she talked the whole way there. She had her eyes open.”
Simmons said when her baby girl saw the doctor, she screamed. That’s when Simmons knew she was going to be okay.
Brooklyn was shot in the head and shoulder while in the arms of her father as they were getting out of a car. A third bullet grazed her neck. Brooklyn’s mom credits the doctors and nurses at Children’s Mercy. She also credits her little girl with giving her the strength to endure the last 19 days.
“That’s how I stay strong because she was strong,” Simmons said. “She pulled through, so I can pull through anything if my baby is shot at 10 months and pulls through.”
Simmons said her daughter will turn one in a couple of weeks and they plan to have a big party. One of the best presents she could get, an arrest in the case.
The shooting happened September 30 near 39th and Bellefontaine in Kansas City, Mo. Brooklyn’s father, Darius Murff, was also shot several times, but is expected to be okay. Anyone with information is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at 816.474.TIPS. All calls remain anonymous.