‘Dad, it hurt.’ 4-year-old critically injured in TN road rage shooting, family says
A Tennessee family was headed to Outback Steakhouse for dinner when someone shot at their car — striking 4-year-old Itali Oakley in the backseat, according to reports from family and news outlets.
“Itali said, ‘Dad, it hurt,’ and touched her neck,” Itali’s mom, Kerbi Oakley, told Fox 13. “We turned around, and blood was all in her hand. I immediately went into shock.”
Memphis police said they responded to reports of a shooting involving a 4-year-old victim at 8:51 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 18, along South Perkins Road in east Memphis. The victim, later identified as by family as Itali, was taken to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in critical condition.
The investigation is ongoing, and police are searching for a dark-colored sedan driven by the suspect.
Family members told multiple news outlet they believe it was a road rage shooting.
Itali and her family were pulling out of their driveway when they accidentally cut off another car, WREG reported.
Her grandmother, Charlene Dearing, told the outlet that Itali’s dad tried to pull over and let the car pass, and that’s when the shooting reportedly started. She said she heard “pow, pow” four times from inside the house.
According to Action 5 News, Dearing opted to stay home at the last minute.
“I didn’t lay down but a good five minutes, and I heard something,” Dearing told Action 5 News. “I thought it was a wreck. I said ‘Oh no. there’s been an accident.’ It sounded like ‘boom! boom!’ I didn’t know it was gunshots.”
Her daughter started banging on the door, screaming at her to call 911, the news outlet reported.
“(Itali’s) father had her in his arms,” Dearing said, according to Action 5 News. “He was telling her, ‘Itali, please don’t go to sleep. Don’t go to sleep. Don’t go to sleep.’”
Oakley said she thinks about three or four rounds were fired into the backseat of the car, leaving a hole the size of her hand, Fox 13 reported.
Dearing told WREG her granddaughter was “grazed by a bullet,” the fragments of which reportedly hit her neck and spine.
“She said, ‘Dad I don’t feel good,’” Dearing told the news outlet. “He said she grabbed her neck and said, ‘I’m bleeding, dad.’”
In a more than 10-minute Facebook Live video on the night of the shooting, Oakley can be heard saying, “they shot at my baby” and “who would shoot a moving car?” The mother also pleaded in separate Facebook posts to help find the shooter.
“My baby (is) in surgery fighting for her life,” Oakley said in post just before 1 a.m. on Feb. 19. “Jesus let Memphis believe in prayer tonight, I need the whole city involved.”
Itali’s lungs were in rough shape, and she had a blood clot in her leg as of Tuesday, Feb. 22, Oakley told Fox 13. But the surgeon reportedly said her daughter will survive.
“This is not gangster. This is not what you see on TV. This is not a game that you play on the Xbox,” Oakley said in an interview with Fox 13. “These are human lives. These are kids. That’s my baby — that’s my future.”
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Memphis Crime Stoppers at 901-528-CASH.
This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 10:06 AM with the headline "‘Dad, it hurt.’ 4-year-old critically injured in TN road rage shooting, family says."
