Police were searching Wednesday for a gunman who walked up to a 6-year-old Georgia boy as he was riding his bicycle and shot him in the chest — at point blank range.
Somehow little Ni-Shawn Moore managed to survive and is expected to recover from his wound, Gwinnett County police said.
But cops are appealing to the public for help in identifying his attacker and offering a $2,000 reward.
"Whoever did this to my son, he did not deserve this," the boy's mom, Sharnita Harrington, told WXIA-TV in Atlanta.
Ni-Shawn was attacked around 6 p.m. Saturday in the Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville, police said.
"He just heard a pow pow" and then saw the blood on his chest, his grandmother, Anita Harrington, said.
At first police suspected Ni-Shawn had been shot with a BB gun. He was able to walk and speak. His mother drove him to the hospital.
It wasn't until Ni-Shawn arrived at Gwinnett Medical Center that doctors discovered the boy had been shot with a .22-caliber weapon, police said.
He was then transferred to the Henrietta Egleston Hospital for Children in Atlanta, from which he was discharged on Tuesday.
But the stranger's bullet remains lodged in his chest.
"They (are) not going to be able to remove the bullet," Sharnita Harrington said.
"They say the bullet went through his rib, so his rib is broke," the boy's grandmother added.
Anyone with information on the shooting should call Gwinnett police at (770)513-5300 or Crime Stoppers at (404)577-TIPS.
