Brooklyn Teen Kyla-Simone Sobers-Batties Undergoes Surgery After Stray Bullet Narrowly Misses Brain
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A teenage girl who was shot in the head late last week remained in the hospital Sunday in a medically induced coma.
Brooklyn Teen Kyla-Simone Sobers-Batties Undergoes Surgery After Stray Bullet Narrowly Misses Brain
Police said the girl was not the intended target. CBS2's Kiran Dhillon spoke with her mother about the horrific ordeal that has left the girl in critical condition.
Just moments before she was shot, 16-year-old Kyla-Simone Sobers-Batties was doing what she loves to do, dancing and making TikTok videos. That's according to her mother, Nadine Sobers, who got the call that she had been shot.
"I just went numb. I didn't have any... I couldn't function," Sobers said.
Police said the shooting happened Friday just after 3 p.m. Sobers-Batties was sitting on a bench in a park near Nevins Street and Wycoff Street, close to the Gowanus Houses in the Boerum Hill section of Brooklyn when she was struck by a stray bullet.
"I pinch myself and I hit myself to try to wake up and I can't," Sobers said.
The young girl was rushed to the hospital, where she underwent surgery to remove bullet fragments from her head.
Incredibly, the bullet missed her brain.
"It didn't go in. It went up, so that is why my daughter is still here today," Sobers said. "Everything is a day-to-day process, a minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour. I will take that over not having her here."
Originally from Brooklyn, the teen and her mom moved to Trinidad and Tobago for five years before returning home in 2019 so Sobers-Batties could focus on school.
The senior at Cobble Hill High School of American Studies has dreams of studying law in college.
"She is loving, unbelievably loving and giving and kind," Sobers said.
Investigators said the motive for the attack remains unknown, but they are currently searching for three males.
Sobers said it's up to community members to speak out if they know anything, in order to prevent senseless violence like this.
Sobers said her daughter's 17th birthday is in just two weeks, on Oct 16. The two planned to go to Florida this week as an early birthday celebration.
That trip has now been canceled, but Sobers said she is remaining hopeful that the two will be able to reschedule.
"She is going to get to that birthday and the next birthday and all the birthdays after that. Yes, she's going to make it there," Sobers said.
As her daughter fights for her life, a heartbroken mother is asking anyone who can to say a prayer for her child's full recovery.
Police have released pictures of two men they would like to talk to about the shooting. They said the men are not suspects.
CBS2's Kiran Dhillon contributed to this report.