A man has been charged with shooting 9-year-old boy in the head in Washington, D.C., almost a year and a half after the violence shocked the city.
Jaydan Stancil was the unintended victim of a shootout Oct. 3, 2014, Northeast D.C., police said. Police officers cradled the little boy and rushed him to a hospital in a police cruiser, likely saving his life.
Kenneth Parker, 27, faces 14 counts related to the shooting of the child, including assault with intent to kill, Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier said Friday afternoon at a news conference. Parker already was imprisoned on unrelated charges, Lanier said.
Jaydan was shot in a parking lot next to a playground near the Mayfair Mansions apartments. Doctors gave him just minutes to live, his mother, Monique Nichols, said.
"It's unbelievable," she said weeks after the crime left a bullet in the child's brain. "People say it's a miracle. They call him the miracle baby."
Dr. John Myseros, chief of neurosurgery at Children's National Medical Center, operated on Jaydan and said he thought the boy would not survive.
"I thought he was going to die. Everybody did," he said after the shooting. "The bullet went through the bone, dragging the bone with it into the brain. It went up, ricocheted off the top and went down."
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Jaydan, now 10, and his mother were headed to a doctor's appointment when the police chief called her with news of the arrest, Lanier said.
Other suspects may be charged in the case, which is still open.
D.C. police closed five homicide cases in the past three days, Lanier said. She praised homicide detectives who labored over the case, and thanked the public for submitting tips.
"Please, if you have additional information for police, please don't hesitate to call us," she said.
Stay with News4 for more details on this developing story.
