A 9-year-old Georgia girl who bore the full brunt of a hit-and-run crash when an out-of-control driver slammed into her while she was playing with a friend in her front yard vowed that she would make a full recovery.
Surveillance footage captured the moment the car came careening deep into the yard in Lithonia and hit LaDerihanna Holmes, 9, leaving her with a fractured skull and broken pelvis.
As two people from the car fled on foot, family members rushed to LaDerihanna and took her to a nearby hospital.
LaDerihanna said on April 4, less than a week after the crash, that she expects to make a full recovery and be back on her feet soon.
“I’m coming back.”
Girl who was plowed into by car in front yard on road to recovery. https://t.co/kO9PxPrldg
— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 4, 2019
“I’m coming back,” LaDerihanna told NBC. “I’m coming soon.”
She said she plans to rejoin her cheerleading squad soon.
Currently in a wheelchair and undergoing physical therapy, the girl added that she was “in a lot of pain” when she was first hospitalized but now believes she’ll be walking in “about a week.”
“We’ve taken a few steps on the walker—as many as I could do. I was like, I’m not going to be in the hospital for too long,”
She’s the “miracle girl.” A survivor who was struck in her yard by an out-of-control speeding car. She tells me “we (me and my parents) do thank God a lot for miracles that happen.” More tonight on @NBCNightlyNews pic.twitter.com/uTyudo8cSP
— Kerry Sanders (@KerryNBC) April 4, 2019
She said the support she’s seen from family, friends, and the community has heartened her.
“It’s just wonderful and overwhelming that they’re helping me and praying for me and putting me in their prayers, and it’s just so nice,” LaDerihanna said. “My goal is to get better with the help from everybody in the world.”
Family members said she’s shown immense strength in the wake of the tragedy.
“She’s truly a miracle. “From what happened to her I’m surprised she’s alive,” said LaDerihanna’s mother, Charlette Bolton.
“She’s a strong, resilient little girl. She’s very, very strong—she keeps me strong on my every day. I have no doubt that she’s going to make a full recovery.”
Driver Arrested
A man who was identified as the driver of the car that slammed into the girl admitted he was driving at the time but claimed that he was fighting off a carjacker.
Gabriel Jabri Fordham, 28, surrendered to police on April 2.
Fordham’s attorney Ryan Williams said that Fordham was driving the car but that he never meant to hit the girls.
“Someone jumped in his vehicle with a pistol, put the gun to his face, made him drive, and the whole time my client was driving, he was kind of directing the path,” Williams told WSB-TV.
The crash occurred when Fordham tried to fight off the person, his lawyer claimed. He said the passenger seen in video footage of the crash was the carjacker.
“My client tried to take the gun from him, the guy hits him in the face, my client blacks out, and that’s why you see the full-fledged force of them going through a stop sign,” Williams said.
And his client meant to stay at the scene but chose to flee when someone came out of the house and made threats against him, Williams said.
According to an arrest warrant obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, officers said Fordham was traveling at a high rate of speed when he slammed into the girls and a mailbox outside the house.
Jail records show that Fordham was arrested multiple times dating back to 2008; previous charges include aggravated assault, burglary, and forgery.
