Brittanie Wright had just dropped off her daughter at an Athens dance studio and gone back to her car when gunfire suddenly erupted in the parking lot.
“I was like, ‘What’s going on? It’s broad daylight, what could possibly be going on?’” Wright recalled thinking.
That’s when she noticed the bullet holes in the studio’s windows and a dance coach rushing out to get her.
“As soon as she opened the door, she was like, ‘It’s Ne’vaeh! Ne’vaeh! Her eye!’” Wright said.
A stray bullet had grazed Ne’vaeh Brown’s left eye, splitting it. In an instant, a once active, bubbly 5-year-old girl was hushed and partially blind.
The shooter, 38-year-old Rasheed Scott, took responsibility for the brazen crime last week and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of first-degree cruelty to children, as well as illegal firearms charges, in the April 26 shooting.
The little girl, meanwhile, will have to spend the rest of her life wearing a prosthetic eye.
That April day, Scott was in the parking lot of a shopping center that housed the dance studio along North Avenue and got into an argument over reasons that Athens-Clarke County police said were never fully established during the investigation but were likely drug-related.
As he aimed his gun at another man, a shootout ensued, with bullets flying in all directions. At least one went into the dance studio and pierced Ne’vaeh’s eye. Police said it was just inches away from causing a fatal injury. Another bullet fired by Scott struck a 14-year-old girl in the arm.
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When Wright rushed over to her daughter, she came upon a gruesome scene. Coaches were attempting to apply pressure to her daughter’s wound in an effort to stop the bleeding.
In that moment, Wright’s only concern was to get her daughter to a hospital. The little girl wasn’t crying anymore, and Wright feared a brain injury.
Police and paramedics rushed Ne’vaeh to a hospital, where she underwent surgery in hopes of saving her eye. There were no further injuries and the surgery went smoothly, but after a few weeks, Ne’vaeh still hadn’t regained vision in that eye and it was deteriorating.
The decision was made to remove it and have her fitted with a prosthetic, which Wright said has helped ease some of the teasing and stares Ne’vaeh was getting from other kids.
Wright said her little girl is much quieter now and doesn’t want to participate in extracurricular activities like before.
“She’s scared to do anything, like if something like that ever happened again,” she said.
Ne’vaeh is afraid of the dark and even going to the restroom at night, her mother said. They both have symptoms of PTSD, too. Popping noises startle them. Wright said she hopes to get therapy for the whole family soon in addition to physical therapy for Ne’vaeh as she adjusts to seeing the world in a different way.
As for Scott, this will be his latest prison term. His criminal history dates to 2004 with at least 12 stints behind bars, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
“The results of this (plea deal) illustrate the thorough police work by our officers and detectives,” police Chief Jerry Saulters said. “Crimes like this will not be tolerated in our community, and we will continue to hold the offenders accountable.”
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