"That couldn't been a joke," said mother Elonda Warner. "With the windows down, when you shoot stuff like that, you shoot at walls."
Five-year-old Corr'Mauri Hunter is recovering from surgery at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland after being shot in the eye with a paintball gun. His mother is angry and in shock. She refuses to leave the hospital without him.
"I'm not going to allow it, I'm not," Warner said. "You know, he's suffering right now."
Warner says that she, Corr'Mauri, the 5-year-old's father, and her 2-year-old niece were parked at 9th and Wood streets when a teenage boy fired several rounds of paint at the car.
Her car remains covered by thick coats of paint. One of the rounds hit Corr'Mauri in his left eye. No one else was injured. Doctors say the lacerations to the 5-year-old's cornea may heal on their own, without the need for additional surgery. So for now, they're using a wait and see approach.
Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent made a surprise visit to the hospital on Wednesday, bringing with him a stuffed teddy bear.
Warner says she doesn't know why the boy shot at them, but believes she may have successfully identified her son's attacker by using social media. The police are investigating.
"We have some good leads in the case and we're following up on it and we hope to bring it to a resolution as quickly as we can," Chief Whent said.
While Corr'Mauri fights to recover, his mother is fighting to see the person responsible caught.
"I'm not about to allow this," she said. "I want these guys in jail. I don't care what I gotta do, but I'm not about to allow my son's suffering like this no more."
