A Detroit man who is an assistant football coach at a Detroit high school has been charged in connection with the shooting of a 33-year-old woman and her 7-year-old daughter earlier this week.
Watch below: Suspect in Custody After Mother and 7-Year-Old Girl Shot in Detroit
Aaron Matthew Wright, 32, is charged with two counts of Assault with Intent to Murder, one count of Home Invasion – First Degree, two counts of Assault with Intent to do Great Bodily Harm, two counts of Discharge of a Firearm in or at a Building – Causing Injury, one count of Carrying a Dangerous Weapon with Unlawful Intent, one count of Carrying a Concealed Weapon, and eight counts of Felony Firearm.
The violent confrontation unfolded Monday afternoon at an apartment complex on Farnsworth Street near Gratiot Avenue and Van Dyke Avenue.
Prosecutors say that Wright and the victim were in a argument on the front porch of the victims' home, and during the altercation, the 7-year-old was standing near her mother in the living room.
It's alleged that the woman tried to close the front door, but Wright forced entry, pulled out a gun and fired, hitting the woman in the arm and the 7-year-old in the chest.
The argument allegedly stemmed from an earlier fight between the children.
Both victims were rushed to local hospitals. Alexis Reaves is recovering up the street at Detroit Receiving Hospital. Meanwhile, young Alayah underwent emergency open-heart surgery at Children’s Hospital of Michigan.
"They had to open up my grandbaby's chest cavity to save her life," said the girl's grandmother, Annette Reaves. "The (bullet) fragments were traveling to her heart. If any fragments would have traveled more, it would have cut her heart and she would have been bleeding out."
A courageous neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, rushed into the apartment immediately after the gunfire to provide crucial first aid to both mother and daughter.
"This is beyond outrageous. When in the world did it become okay for an adult to introduce a firearm into an argument between two young children? The defendant we are charging today with 17 counts is an assistant football coach at a Detroit high school. Let that sink in. He decides, allegedly, to settle this dispute with his daughter by going to the home of the other child and shooting her and her mother. We will make sure that the only football games he is involved in the future is as a spectator watching it on a TV screen," said Prosecutor Kym Worthy.
Wright later turned himself in. He's expected to be arraigned on the charges Thursday afternoon.
