FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - The 11-year-old boy who was shot in downtown Fort Lauderdale is heading home from Broward Health Medical Center, but he leaves with a bullet still inside him.
The boy’s mother said the bullet came so close to his major organs, she feared for his life.
Semaj Furlow was discharged from the hospital Friday night with a story no child should ever have to tell.
“He didn’t really shoot me. He meant to shoot the other girl when he started riding it,” he said.
Investigators said it started at Northwest First Street and First Avenue on Saturday evening when two men got into a fight and things escalated.
Thirty-two-year-old Joshua Ladson got a gun from 60-year-old Stanley Johnson and began firing.
“My son got caught in the crossfire,” Semaj’s mother said.
His family had stopped at a cookout down the street when they heard the shots and started running. Semaj was hit on his side.
When asked if he knew what hit him, he said, “A bullet. I was on the ground in the angle it came.” He said his family was asking, “Are you OK? Are you OK?”
“It’s a blessing he’s fighting this hard just to come home,” Semaj’s mother said.
“I’m angry at the person that started this fight,” Semaj said.
Ladson and Johnson both remain at the Broward County Jail, but the young boy faces several months of not being able to play sports or ride his skateboard all because of a conflict that had nothing to do with him.
“It was not his fault,” his mother said.
Semaj’s mother said they chose to leave the bullet inside because it was too dangerous to remove it, but he faces several more months of medical care.
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