A 14-year-old girl was being hailed as a hero on Thursday after she took bullets and shielded her infant nephew from gunfire in South Los Angeles.
De Je Brewer is in pain and can barely move her right arm, the one that took the .40-caliber bullet. A bullet also went through her back and narrowly missed puncturing her lung.
"I'm blessed," she said.
The shooting happened Tuesday night around 9 p.m. in the driveway of one of De Je's relative's home in the 1300 block of West 59th Place.
De Je was inside the family car, sitting next to her 10-month-old nephew in his baby seat when a dark green Pontiac Grand Prix pulled up and a passenger opened fire.
De Je was struck and the baby narrowly missed gunfire.
"I felt something hit me," said De Je, the ninth-grade, straight-A student. "So then I checked and there was blood."
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Her aunt, Donna Brooks, is furious.
"It's vicious," she said. "It's evil and it's cruel."
Police said they did not have information on the suspect.
Stephanie Marroquin and Corey Arvin contributed to this report.
