MIAMI (WSVN) - A grandmother who was hospitalized after getting shot in her forearm through her apartment window while sleeping with her grandchildren is speaking out about the ordeal.
Despite excruciating pain, Debra Zepeda appeared to be in good spirits as she awaited another surgery Monday after being hit in the arm by a stray bullet over the weekend.
She said that she’s grateful that the bullets didn’t hit any of her grandchildren.
“I woke up to my grandmother screaming,” Zepeda’s 11-year-old grandson Christian Abalos said.
Abalos was sleeping next to his grandmother just after 4 a.m. Saturday in the family’s Overtown apartment near Northwest Fourth Avenue and 16th Terrace. He said her arm was wrapped tightly around him as they slept.
“She hugged me. She always hugs me,” Christian said. “That bullet could’ve gone right here.”
“My arm saved my boy,” Zepeda added in Spanish as she showed 7News her injuries over FaceTime from her hospital bed at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Her right arm was swollen from the bullet going straight through it. Her fingers were swollen as well, and she could not move three of them.
“I was so confused as to how she was bleeding,” Christian said.
As police investigate the shooting, Zepeda is eager to get back home to her family.
She said she thanks God the stray bullets didn’t take her grandchild.
Zepedas said she hopes she’ll be discharged and back home with her grandchildren on Wednesday.
The shooting remains under investigation.
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