ATLANTA — Instead of enjoying his summer with family and friends, 12-year-old Ja'Quavious Davis is left bedridden in the hospital.
The young boy was with his older brother when he was shot last Friday evening in the street by the intersection of Florida Avenue SW and M.L.K. Jr Drive SW. Atlanta Police said they found him on the ground, shot in the arm and stomach. He's been in the hospital since.
"Watching him hurting, it makes me cry just about all day, every day," Davis' mom said.
She spoke with 11Alive outside the hospital five days after the shooting. We aren't naming her for their family's safety. While her son struggles through his pain, the 12-year-old is resilient and trying to get better.
"He can't feel his legs and stuff. He can't feel nothing but his upper body, and they said when you get hit like that where the bullet is in his back, he's paralyzed," his mom said.
Her youngest son was stripped of his youth in seconds when bullets flew. Moments after it happened, his older brother called their mom for help.
"He turned around and said he got shot. It was like a, 'Hurry up, momma, he got shot,'" she said.
Video captured right after the shooting shows police responding and people surrounding the child, trying to get him help.
"When he first got shot, he was like, 'Momma! I'm okay, momma. I'm okay!' So he really thought he was okay, not knowing that he was in critical condition," she said.
As she stays by his side in the hospital, she prays he'll walk again, and he won't be permanently paralyzed.
"I'm faithful that he will walk," she said.
But she said she needs and wants anyone who had put him in danger caught and off the street.
"I hate them. It's no, 'I'm going to be forgiving.' There's no understanding. Y'all got a lot of people hurt, and they don't understand that. They should be scared because I'm a parent that I'm not letting up. I'm not at all. I'm not," she said.
Ja'Quavious's mom is able to get him the help he needs because of the support she's received from the community. Even some prominent artists in the community have stepped up. If you'd like to help them, you can find their fundraiser here.
11Alive asked Atlanta Police earlier Wednesday if an arrest had been made, but police said the investigation into who did this is still ongoing. No arrests have been made, so if you know anything, APD would like to hear from you.