A teacher, and fellow mom, is recounting the moment she jumped into action to help save a 3-year-old boy who was shot in Philadelphia.
The 3-year-old boy was shot in the cheek around 5 p.m. Sunday in the city's Grays Ferry neighborhood, according to Philadelphia police.
Police on the scene in the area of Philadelphia where a 3-year-old was shot, April 30, 2023.
WPVI
Meeka Outlaw said she and her 13-year-old son were in front of their home, unloading groceries from her car, when she heard a woman yelling and running toward her, holding a little boy.
"As she gets closer, I see that the baby has blood, like, dripping down his leg and under his foot," Outlaw told ABC News. "I said, 'Do you want me to call the ambulance?' And she said, 'Please!'"
Good Samaritan, Meeka Outlaw, let the mother and her injured son into her car and drove them to a nearby fire station, after the child was stuck by a bullet in Philadelphia, April 30, 2023.
WPVI
"I'm telling [the 911 dispatcher] what's happened, I'm telling her the child is bleeding. That’s when [the boy's mother] yells that the baby isn't breathing no more," Outlaw said.
Outlaw said the dispatcher told her not to move so the ambulance could reach them. But she said the mom was yelling for help.
Good Samaritan, Meeka Outlaw, let the mother and her injured son into her car and drove them to a nearby fire station, after the child was stuck by a bullet in Philadelphia, April 30, 2023.
WPVI
"I knew I didn’t have enough gas to make it to the children's hospital, but I also knew that there was a fire station" a few blocks away, Outlaw said. "I knew if I could get the baby there, somebody would actually be able to work on him."
Outlaw said they jumped in her car, and that the mother was "hysterical" on the drive to the fire station. Once they arrived, Outlaw said she yelled for the firefighters who immediately came to the little boy's aid.
The 3-year-old was taken to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in critical but stable condition, police said.
Police, who confirmed a good Samaritan drove the boy and his mother to a fire station, said no arrests have been made. Police told ABC News that evidence "points to the shooting having occurred inside of a property."
Outlaw, a lifelong Philadelphia resident and a middle school science and history teacher, said the gun violence in her city is exhausting.
"I don’t think anybody could ever be numb to it. I'm tired of it. I'm just tired of it," she said. "I've experienced, over the years, a lot of my students getting killed, either while I was teaching them or years after."
Outlaw added, "I would love to know how the little boy is doing. ... I just hope he's OK."
