The glowing screen of one Georgia teenager’s phone showed a room full of friends and the excitement of a looming celebration for her birthday minutes away. It was 11:40 p.m. on Feb. 1, and the countdown to her birthday was almost over.
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But as soon as she ended her livestream, the silence of her bedroom was replaced by rapid gunfire that riddled her home with bullets.
Raven Brown was counting down to her 18th birthday with friends during a livestream on Instagram, Fox 5 Atlanta reported. She recalled lying in her bed at her Atlanta home and ending the livestream before she heard, “Pow pow pow pow pow” seconds later. “They was not stopping,” Brown added.
Police said Brown told them she tried to take cover after hearing the shots, but not before she was hit.
The high school senior said she immediately felt a sharp pain. “I collapsed on the floor— my whole arm and two fingers felt numb. And my brother was like, ‘You OK?’ and I was like, ‘I’m shot, I got hit,’” Brown told WSB-TV Atlanta. “I didn’t know I was shot until I fell to the floor.”
When officers arrived, they found Brown “conscious and breathing” with a gunshot wound. She was rushed to the hospital with injuries to her rib, shoulder and lung.
“The bullet remains lodged in her chest, missing a major artery by only inches. Due to how dangerously close it is to this artery, doctors have made the difficult decision not to remove it,” a GoFundMe created to help meet the family’s daily needs and growing medical expenses read.
According to the fundraiser, her mother chose to take time off from work to care for her daughter, who was the only one injured in the shooting.
Brown said she’s happy to be out of the hospital, but said she still deals with a lot of PTSD— especially knowing the gunman is still on the run. Brown is still recovering from a broken shoulder and rib, according to Law & Crime.
Police recovered shell casings at the scene on McDaniel Street, but have not named a suspect, Law & Crime reported. So far, Brown’s family and neighbors said security cameras did not catch the shooter or shooters, but they are hoping someone who knows something will come forward as Atlanta police continue to investigate.
“It makes me feel traumatized about going back home,” Brown said. But she still “thanks God every morning for me waking up.”
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