Shooting in Alabama shopping mall
Witnesses inside the Alabama mall recount what they saw, heard during the shooting.
A 12-year-old girl who was shot in the back during a Thanksgiving night Alabama mall shooting has been released from the hospital on Monday, AL.com reported.
Julie Moore Bennett, the mother of the wounded girl, said she is "so thankful for all the messages, prayer and gifts we have received."
"Molly is home now and doing much better," she said.
The shooting incident unfolded at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, Alabama, as shoppers flocked to the mall to shop for Black Friday deals.
Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., 21, was shot and killed by Hoover police. Police said Bradford was fleeing the scene and brandishing a weapon.
Police initially said they thought Bradford had shot the teen after a physical altercation but retracted that statement Friday night.
Police said an argument between several young men led to gunfire, AL.com reported. Bradford was involved in the initial altercation but did not fire the shots that wounded Molly and another 18-year-old man, the report said.
Bennett said Molly and sister Jessie were shopping with Molly's grandmother, the paper reported.
“They were upstairs, outside of J.C. Penney when a fight broke out. Shots were fired, and one of the bullets hit Molly in the back,’’ Bennett wrote on Facebook over the weekend. “She said that her back hurt, but didn’t even realize she had been shot until she overheard my mom telling me on the phone.”
There are multiple ongoing investigations, the report said.
Bennett called on those wanting to help her daughter to instead help other hospitalized children,
"There are many other children in the hospital that would greatly benefit from your generosity," Bennett told the paper. "If you were thinking of sending Molly a gift, please consider donating a gift to Children's of Alabama, St. Jude's, or your local children's hospital in her honor instead."
Fox News' Kathleen Joyce and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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