JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 7-year-old Jacksonville boy is out of the hospital after getting shot Friday in the doorway of his own home.
Dionta Inman, a second-grade student, was wounded by gunfire about 11 a.m. that day at his family’s Murray Hill home. Police taped off the block of Dakar Street as they collected evidence from the scene. So far, they have not announced any arrests in the case.
Inman’s mother, Tarvia Foster, told News4Jax he was shot in the hip and the bullet exited his buttocks. The shooting stemmed from some sort of family dispute. Foster said her cousins, brothers, fiancé and a neighbor got into a scuffle outside their house.
“It felt like a fire and it hurt,” said Inman, who added that he feels both “sad and mad” about it. The boy is expected to make a complete recovery, but the emotional scars might linger as his mother indicated he was injured by his own family member’s gunfire.
It’s unclear exactly who fired the round that struck the child.
“He (Dionta) was sitting on the couch playing on his phone, and when he heard gunshots, he came to the door and shots were fired,” Foster told News4Jax. “And he was shot.”
While on the phone with 911, Foster and her fiancé made the decision to drive her son to the hospital instead of waiting on an ambulance. She wrapped her son’s wound with a shirt, placed him in the backseat of her car and rushed to Ascension St. Vincent’s Riverside.
Inman was in good spirits Monday, a day after his release from the hospital. “I like to play football, and I like to play on my phone," he said.
Foster said she’s meeting with detectives Monday night to discuss the case.
“I just ask everyone that comes forward and is honest about the situation,” she said. “I’m not looking for no type of revenge or anything. Because the man above is going to definitely take care of it.”
She noted that she’s being careful and is in the process of moving away from where the shooting happened. She expressed gratitude to the people who have reached out to help her family in the wake of the shooting.
“I’m going to leave this in 2019 -- 2020, we’re going to have a better year," she added.
Anyone with information related to this case is asked to call the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office at 904-630-0500.