Kenyan teen in US in need of help after being shot in the face
A Kenyan woman living in the United States has appealed for financial help after being shot in the face.
On Monday, 17-year-old Sharon Morara created a GoFundMe page with a distressing title: “Wrongfully Shot in the Face.”
Morara tells her story of how she was out in Minneapolis protesting against police brutality on May 28, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police officers.
She recalls being near the local police station, with cops on one side of the road and protesters on the other. Nearby, the Lake Street Target was being looted.
Morara says she wasn’t looting and didn’t throw anything at the cops. But when the officers started lobbing tear gas into the crowd, she says, she and her friend almost got hit.
“All I remember was that I was standing by this tree, was about to turn around, and I got hit,” Morara writes on her Gofundme.com page. “I felt like I got sniped.”
She says she was rushed to Park Nicollet Hospital and had to wait there until 4am when she could be transferred to Children’s Hospital, where they had room for her.
To smile again
They stitched her up and sent her home, but she’d need plastic surgery to fix her lip so she’d be able to smile again.
She included a picture in her post, which is graphic.
Now the family is appealing for funds from well-wishers to enable the teenager to undergo the reconstructive surgery.
Sharon’s mother Rose Oboga told KDRTV that her daughter had accompanied her father to the streets to demand justice for slain African-American man when the incident happened.
Floyd, 52, died after a white policeman attached to Minneapolis Police Department knelt on his neck for nine minutes, an incident that sparked protests across US cities.
“I heard a sharp object pierce through my jaw and before I knew what it was, I lost consciousness and came down tumbling,” Sharon said.
The bullet left her with a cavernous wound on the left side of her mouth but, fortunately, it did not hit her teeth.
“My mom is a single mom, and she recently got the bill for the two hospitals I went to and the ambulance ride,” she writes. “On top of that, my mom has been looking for a plastic surgeon,” she adds.
Morara writes she didn’t know how she felt about making this Gofundme, and about the potential attention so soon after a traumatic event. But she needed “help,” and so did her mom.
She’s already raised Sh1.4 million with a goal of raising Sh6 million.
Kenyans living in the US, as well as Americans, want the incident investigated thoroughly and police officers involved arrested and prosecuted.
Sharon is a student at Hopkins High School in Minnesota. Her parents hail from Bobasi in Kisii County.
The fundraiser is aimed at helping her mother pay for the surgery, noting that not all plastic surgeons take their insurance while those that do require a down payment.