Seattle Teen Credits Glasses With Helping Save Her Life from Gunshot
Alonza Bryant, 16, was at home on the couch when she was shot in the face.
Dec. 23, 2013 — -- A Seattle teenager and her family are crediting her eyeglasses with helping save her life when they became the victims of a terrifying drive-by shooting.
Lavrette Bryant was in bed with her dog on Saturday night while her 16-year-old daughter Alonza was on the couch in the living room watching TV.
"As soon as I closed my eyes, the shots started -- pow, pow, pow, pow," Bryant recalled to ABCNews.com. "It stopped and everyone woke up screaming."
There were four adults and three children in the house. Bryant immediately dialed 911 and then she saw her daughter.
"My daughter's like, 'Mom, I'm bleeding. I'm bleeding,'" Bryant said. They went into the bathroom while they waited for help and there was a bullet lodged "in the middle of her nose," between her eyes.
"She was still conscious," the mother said. "She was still talking. And then she was like, 'Mom, I'm feeling dizzy.'"
Five minutes later, Bryant said, the shooting started again.
"I was in front of the window and I moved just in time," she said. Police said several shots went through the walls of the home and one round went through the front window.
Authorities arrived and Alonza was rushed to the hospital. Both she and authorities credited her glasses with slowing down the bullet and preventing it from doing deeper into the girl's head and causing more -- potentially fatal -- damage.
"I think it was God's protection over her," Bryant said.
"The victim was struck by a single round in the bridge of her glasses, breaking them," Seattle police said in a statement. "Amazingly, she was not seriously injured."
Police located spent shell casings in the street and collected them for evidence. Officers have not identified a suspect or suspects.
"Investigators believe the residence was targeted, but that the 16-year-old girl was not the intended victim," police said. "Gang detectives will continue to follow up on this shooting incident."
Bryant adamantly denied that anyone in her home was involved in gang activity.
"It had nothing to do with anyone in the home," she said. "It had to do with someone who used to live there that was gang-affiliated. We're not gang-affiliated. We had nothing to do with what happened."
The family is afraid to go back to the house and are "running out of food, gas for the car and places to hide," Bryant said. "This is Christmastime and the kids don't have presents."
Alonza is in stable condition, but is still bleeding and her eyes are swollen shut. Bryant said her daughter is scared to go in the house or out in public.
"She's grateful she's here. She's glad she had the glasses on," Bryant said. "She just wants the people who did it to get caught."
