CLEVELAND — She’s 101-years-old and survived being shot inside her own bedroom while watching television.
Habeeba Barnes is now back home recovering under the watchful eyes of her 75-year-old daughter, Cheryl Barnes.
Cheryl Barnes lifted her mother’s left arm up and down as part of therapy in the comfort of their home.
It was nothing of the sort the night of May 12 when a bullet came through the ceiling from an upstairs apartment hitting Habeeba Barnes' arm.
“It’s unbelievable it’s something you would never think would happen especially after you got that old, you know, and never been around violence,” Cheryl Barnes said.
Habeeba Barnes was in her lounge chair in her room at the time.
Cheryl Barnes had just gone in to turn on the television for her mother. Seconds later, Barnes says her mother called out her name in a way she knew something was wrong.
“I jumped up and she said I’d been shot in the arm,” Barnes said.
Barnes called 911. She says the bullet hit an artery and her mother is on blood thinners.
“She lost a lot of blood,” Barnes said.
Police stopped the bleeding with a tourniquet before medics got to the house.
But Barnes says doctors told her that her mother would need surgery.
“I told him do whatever you had to do as long as my mother came out,” Barnes said.
Barnes first thought the bullet came through the window but was told by police it came from the ceiling.
“It was scary, it was truly scary and then anger,” Barnes said.
Police arrested Dwayne Giddens that night.
“He kept saying I wasn’t shooting, I didn't have no gun,” Barnes said.
Records show an officer found a gun on the top shelf of a closet in the apartment upstairs.
“I’m mad. Accident or not he needs to be prosecuted because even if you’re here to visit your child why do you bring a gun,” Barnes said.
Barnes says her mother worked for Cleveland police back in the day as an operator. She turned 101 on April 30. They don’t talk about the shooting.
“Who wants to talk about the bad,” Barnes said.
The focus is on healing.
“She’s a strong woman, doing good, thank God. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to her like that but it’s over. Now, all we got to do is heal up,” Barnes said.
The case against Giddens was bound over to Cuyahoga Common Pleas Court where records show the state wants it to go directly to a grand jury.
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