Girl's shooting stuns mom

Eunice Amison, left, mother of the victim, appears at a press conference with Deonica Smith, Daisy's biological sister.

Eunice Amison, left, mother of the victim, appears at a press conference with Deonica Smith, Daisy's biological sister.

Eunice Amison doesn't understand why someone would shoot her 14-year-old adopted daughter as she ran into a house in North Toledo.

"What would make a person do that? She's nothing but a kid. She hasn't hurt anybody, especially [someone who would want] to kill her," Ms. Amison, of Monroe, Mich., said yesterday. Her daughter, Daisy, was in critical condition in St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center.

Ms. Amison said her daughter was visiting her biological brother, Derrick Smith, at his home, 727 East Oakland St., when she was shot Saturday night. She said Daisy was spending the weekend at her brother's, and the two were getting to know each other.

Police said the teenager told them she was out in front of the house when a black four-door car drove up.

Deonica Smith, Daisy's biological sister, said four people were in the car, and someone called Daisy a vulgar name. She said Daisy saw a passenger - a dark-skinned male with braids - with a gun and turned to run. Then, she was shot.

Daisy

Ms. Amison said Mr. Smith was getting ready to take a shower when Daisy ran upstairs to get him and fell to the floor.

Police said the teenager was shot in the side. Her mother said she was hit in the lower back and that surgeons had to remove some of her colon and repair it.

Doctors said Daisy will be in the hospital for a while but will pull through, Ms. Amison said.

"I don't like to think of it any other way," she said.

Ms. Amison urged anyone with information about the shooting to call police.

"They need to get [the suspect] off the street," she said.

Sgt. Richard Murphy said police are continuing to investigate the shooting.

He said no one was arrested and no arrest warrants were filed in the case yesterday.

Ms. Amison said she adopted Daisy when the girl was 3 months old. She has five other adopted children.

She said Daisy will be a sophomore at Orchard Center High School in Monroe in the fall.

Ms. Smith said her younger sister is an outgoing, happy girl who is now lying somber in a hospital bed.

"They could have killed her," the 20-year-old sibling said. "She's 14 years old. She's not living her life yet."