'Mom I'm bleeding, I've been shot': 13-year-old shot while riding in his mom's car after being picked up from school

A 13-year-old is in the hospital with injuries after he was shot in the arm on Monday afternoon. The boy was riding in his mother's vehicle after she picked him up from school when the shooting happened.  

It had been a great day for the young teenager who had just finished his first day of high school at Denver School of Innovation and Sustainable Design. 

"He was so excited telling me about it. And then this," said his mother Kiri Willis.   

Police said Willis was driving along 14th Avenue on Monday when the suspect, James Katrelle, walked into traffic. The driver, the boy's mother, slammed on her brakes and then continued driving once Katrelle, 22, walked past the car.   

Willis told CBS4 that as she drove away, she heard shots being fired and then her son started screaming. 

"Some crazy guy was screaming and yelling in the road and I told him to move because I almost hit him, and I slammed on my brakes, and then we got like 4 or 5 houses down the street and then he started shooting at us and it was just my car," said the boy's mother Kiri Willis.  

"We heard the gunshots and he said, 'Mom I'm bleeding... I've been shot.'"    

She stopped the car and flagged down a police officer at 14th and Downing. The boy was rushed to the hospital.

The teenager, whose name CBS News Colorado is withholding at the family's request, was home Tuesday with his arm wrapped up. The bullet had gone through and broken a bone. 

"I'm disappointed," he said and expressed hesitancy at going back to school a few blocks from the shooting. 

"A little bit iffy," he said.

A police affidavit indicated Denver police said they spotted a man matching a description of the suspect from a H.A.L.O. camera and arrested him only four blocks away on Colfax Avenue on Monday evening. James was arrested on suspicion of 1st-degree murder. Police found no gun, but indicate they did gather what they believe to be gunshot residue from him.

The boy's mother expressed frustration at what happened. 

"This is a different world. Never used to be like this," she said. "There is nothing you can do. There is no way to stop it. I have no answers."