Barrow Mum fears BB gun victim ‘could have lost an eye’
Last updated at 16:53, Thursday, 11 October 2012
A MUM has told how her daughter was lucky to escape serious injury when she was shot in a drive-by ball bearing gun attack.
Hollie Bilton was standing with friends near the junction of Park Road and Mill Bank, in Barrow, when the BB was fired from a passing car.
It struck the 12-year-old on the front of her neck, causing bleeding and a red mark to her skin.
The car headed in the direction of the nearby Ormsgill Inn.
But it returned shortly afterwards and another BB was fired from vehicle, this time missing the children, who were waiting for friends to arrive at the bus stop.
Hollie’s mum Frances Bilton says the mark to her daughter’s neck is still visible more than a week since she was struck around 6.30pm last Wednesday.
Miss Bilton, 30, says Hollie has been unfazed by the incident, but shudders at the thought of what injuries the perpetrators could have caused her daughter.
The mum-of-three’s boyfriend has a friend who lost an eye as a result of BB gun accident and is relieved Hollie did not suffer the same fate.
Miss Bilton, of Pine Road, Ormsgill, said: “It hasn’t frightened her – she has gone back out again since.
“But if she had been any littler it would’ve got her in the eye. It could’ve taken her eye out and that’s what I’m more bothered about.
“That’s what scares me – what could have happened and that she could have lost her eye.
“She says it wasn’t a little BB gun, but one of those massive ones with two handles, so it’s more forceful.”
Hollie, a pupil at Furness Academy, believes the offenders were in a green Volkswagen Golf, or similar car.
The man who fired at her is described as having brown or blond, wavy hair of collar length, aged around 20, and wearing a dark T-shirt. The driver is described as being bald or having a shaved head.
Miss Bilton did not initially report the incident to the police until people re-assured her of the seriousness of the matter.
She said academy staff also became aware of the incident and contacted police.
Miss Bilton said: “She didn’t really realise it had hurt her until she got home. It was bleeding.
“For people in their 20s, or any age, to be out shooting at things from a car, I don’t know what they were thinking.
“I don’t think they think of the consequences. They could have been shooting at other people that night, but the police have said they haven’t had any other reports.”
First published at 16:50, Thursday, 11 October 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
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Too many people live in a world of what if!
Posted by what if on 12 October 2012 at 15:28