No 8-year-old should live in fear for his life, with nightmares that keep him awake all night. But that is a daily occurrence for Donald Maiden Jr., known as D.J., who was playing tag outside his Dallas apartment complex when he was shot in the face by a neighbor last September.
There was seemingly no reason for the attack by 46-year-old Brian Cloninger, a white man, who told police “he wanted to” when asked why he fired on the black child.
The little boy, who spent weeks in the hospital hooked up to machines and breathing tubes, is now, thankfully, physically improved. After the shooting, he had a metal plate and wire mesh to hold his damaged jaw together.
“We’re doing much better,” his mother, Monique Locklin, told The Root. “A lot better. He’s doing well.”
D.J. still has a tracheotomy tube in his neck to help him breathe, and is due for a reconstructive surgery on March 10, but he is functioning as normally as anyone could expect an 8-year-old who was shot for seemingly no reason to function.
Dallas Boy Shot by Neighbor Struggles to Recover - The Root
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